A Child Gets Stuck in a Cave
by datudou
Summary: Humans. Monsters. After the war, they were supposed to be separated. But somehow, a human finds her way into the underground. Will she be able to learn how to show mercy and become determined to befriend the monsters… or will she resort to fighting back? A novelization of Undertale. Female Frisk. T rating's there for action, dark themes, and general leniency.
1. Prologue: Once Upon A Time

A child arose in the middle of the night. Making sure not to disturb those who were sleeping in the same room, she quietly left her bed, her feet unsteadily touching the floor beneath her.

Everyone called her Frisk.

When she was merely two, she had lost her parents. A devastating car accident, she had been told.

As a result, she had grown up in the town orphanage. It was a little crowded, but still… it was the only home she knew.

The benefactors had tried their best to take care of everyone who lived there with what little funding they had. For the most part, the children there were well-fed, well-clothed, and well-sheltered.

However, their efforts to meet their physical needs came at a price. The benefactors were often too busy to afford to be acquainted with everyone. Frisk was thankful that they were so generous, but never really felt indebted to them.

Other than that, there wasn't really much she felt that she lacked.

Well, no. There was something. She had gotten very bored with her life.

It was a well-known fact at the orphanage that once a child hit a certain age, their chances at adoption grew very slim. Frisk was well beyond this age, having hit her eleventh birthday a few weeks back. This meant that if she remained, nothing was ever going to change for her.

And because of that, there was nothing left for her here. That was why she was going to leave it all behind that night.

That would require her to succeed in her plan, first. And if she were to succeed, she would have to act quickly.

Frisk crept down onto the floor and reached underneath the frame of her bed, blindly gripping onto the things that she had hidden there.

She held up her clothes. They were very comfortable, something that would suit the trek ahead of her. She hastily changed into them within the dark, discarding her plain nightgown onto the floor.

Next, she picked up a drawstring bag that she had prepared in anticipation. The food, water, and money that it contained had been difficult to obtain, yet she had managed to store them for the journey ahead of her. She slung it over her shoulder. Urgently, she pulled on a pair of socks, and then put on the shoes sitting by the side of her bed.

Now that Frisk was ready, then came the hard part: getting out.

The main entrance was firmly locked every night, so there was no use going there. The window in her room was too small to open and climb through, so she had to memorize a location of a window in the hallway in order to take the most direct path outside.

The child cautiously made her way to the window and struggled to open it, trying not to make a ruckus. Her fingers anxiously fiddled with the locking mechanism for a while, due to her limited understanding of how it worked.

But eventually, with a short click, the window unlocked. She summoned her strength and slowly pushed it up, letting in fresh air from outside.

A shiver was sent down the child's back. The temperature of the spring night was a bit chilly. She silently scolded her past-self for not picking a warmer outfit, but she would be forced to shrug off the cold. It was too risky to go back now.

As she poked her head through the window, she realized that she had made a miscalculation, since the window was located on the second floor. She needed to go, though; there wasn't much time to come up with a new plan.

The child crawled through the window, looking at the ground beneath her. She swallowed her fear and flung herself outside, letting gravity take ahold of her.

She managed to land feet-first in the grass below, but the impact of the fall had knocked her right over. She quickly scrambled to get up, doing her best to disregard the intense strain placed on her legs.

She took a moment to glance back on the orphanage behind her, feeling a mixture of fear, success, and excitement. There was little time to waste, though.

As Frisk rushed away, a huge grin rose on her face. It had really worked! The plan was going much more smoothly that she had anticipated.

A small, shrill yip stopped her in her tracks.

She panickedly glanced behind her to find, to her relief, that it was just a little white dog, probably one of the strays that wandered around town. Nothing more.

She began to run away from the dog, realizing that she might be caught if it made a commotion. It made no attempt to pursue her, soon hopping away in another direction.

Once Frisk was a safe distance away from the orphanage, her nerves were finally able to calm down. Her swift, boyish dash slowed to a light jog.

She headed off towards the heart of town underneath the night sky, her path solely illuminated by the lampposts lined up along the road.

* * *

Frisk had found a spot in the alley to rest for the night.

As strange as it was, sleeping in odd places wasn't a new experience to her. On occasion, when she would walk on her way home from school, she would take different paths, exploring the town as she walked through it. One time, about a year ago, when she got so lost that she couldn't find her way back to orphanage before night fell, she randomly picked a spot away from the road to huddle up and fall asleep.

As one could imagine, the owner of the store was surprised when he went to open his store in the morning and found a child, napping blissfully without a care in the world.

She got in a lot of trouble once she returned to the orphanage, but strangely, nothing was done to prevent her from exploring further. So that's what she continued to do.

But it was going to be a while before she returned, this time. If at all.

* * *

At the break of dawn, the child's eyes snapped open. She picked herself up, rubbing her eyes, and began to walk.

Eventually, she found what she was looking for: a bus station. Timidly, she sat down on a bench, waiting for a ride.

There wasn't anyone else there with her, but she didn't mind that. She spent a lot of time thinking to herself, since she was curious about pretty much everything. As a result, she generally wasn't a talkative person, so many of the other kids just left her alone when she wasn't playing with them.

There were a few friends she talked to on a regular basis, however. Those didn't come along too often, though.

Frisk tapped out a rhythm with her feet on the ground in order to calm herself down.

After what seemed like an eternity, the roar of the approaching bus reached her ears. She glanced back up and shakily began to rise from her seat.

Frisk reminded herself that it was only a bus, despite its large size. Still, as the bus came to a complete stop, she cautiously approached it, terror still holding her back.

Automobiles had been a fear of hers, stemming from the knowledge of her parents' demise. She recalled moments during her youth when she would wait for long periods of time before crossing the street if someone wasn't holding her hand.

Although her phobia had become less extreme, it never really went away. She would still cringe if someone in a car drove past her, even if it wasn't moving very quickly.

But really, if she wasn't going to take the bus, the alternative was walking the entire way. She really didn't want to do that.

So she summoned her determination and stepped onto the bus.

The driver was a middle-aged man, a little surprised that a young girl was riding by her lonesome. He watched on as Frisk took an empty seat, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone else.

Despite this, the bus took off, continuing on its route.

* * *

Frisk stared outside the window, viewing the world pass by from her seat. She watched on as people— mostly adults— passed along the sidewalk, bringing a start to their daily lives.

Of course, she wasn't on a mere sightseeing trip. She had a destination in mind.

The orphanage had a considerable collection of books, which was expanded occasionally due to donations. She spent most of her free time reading them, since there wasn't much else to do.

One book in particular she took a liking to was donated when she was nine years old.

It described the ancient tales of the war between humans and monsters. The two races had ruled over the earth, but war broke out between them. After lots of fighting, the humans had ended up victorious. Using a magical spell, the humans sealed the monsters underground.

What interested her was that many versions of the tale claimed that the monsters were imprisoned right under Mt. Ebott.

The myth was well known around town among its residents, since it was situated so close to its base. Still, very few actually believed that the stories were actually true.

Still, no one would approach the mountain. It was said that no one who climbed would ever return.

Ever since she had heard of Mt. Ebott, it had always intrigued Frisk. Sometimes, she would look at pictures of the mountain and dream of climbing it. If she could go anywhere to visit… Ebott would be the place that she would choose.

It seemed that very little was going to stop her now.

The ride lasted about an hour. Once the bus came to the edge of town, she handed all of the money that she had to the driver, telling him to keep the change.

She hopped off with a spring in her step and ran off, leaving the driver very confused.

* * *

Frisk passed through the trees and came to a clearing, finding herself at the foot of the mountain.

It was a warm, humid spring day. Birds were singing, flowers were blooming, and the weather was perfect for a game of catch.

She stared in awe at the sight ahead of her. Seeing it in reality, up close… well, the pictures couldn't really compare.

The child grinned to herself, filling with determination, and began her trek up the mountain.

* * *

Not long after beginning her journey, Frisk came upon a small pond. She knelt down close to it, eyes wide in fascination.

The child stared down at her reflection, a smile spreading across her face as she recognized herself: hair that barely reached her shoulders, youthful features, dark brown eyes — that was Frisk!

A small fish bobbed to the surface, disturbing the reflection. Frisk dipped her finger in the water and watched on as the fish timidly drew back from it.

With a sudden motion, her hand snapped towards the tiny animal in an attempt to grab it, but the fish wriggled out of her grasp, leaving her empty-handed. The child giggled as the fish began to swim to the other end of the pond, clearly spooked by the disturbance.

As she dried her hand off on her shorts, she took a deep breath. The mountain air was crisp and clean, since the mountain had been left untouched by humanity.

She closed her eyes, listening to the birds chirp among the trees. Everything felt so natural and at peace here, not like the chaos of the orphanage…

Her thoughts began to drift to her home. She wondered if anything would happen there without her.

Well, probably not, she assumed. She had never really been influential there. Besides, the benefactors wouldn't care. When other kids ran away, whether successfully or unsuccessfully, they never seemed to care that much.

She assumed that her friends would be able to deduce where she had headed. After all, she recalled telling one of them that she wanted to visit Mt. Ebott one day, and she knew them well enough to know that they could put two and two together.

But of course, none of them would be insane enough to pursue her. And they probably wouldn't mind making new friends in her place.

That meant that she really couldn't feel worse by leaving everyone she knew behind, so it only made her more motivated to continue the ascent.

* * *

Panting in exhaustion, Frisk pulled herself upwards, having clawed her way up a rocky slope. Once her entire body was steadily located on firm ground, she collapsed, her muscles immediately giving way after the intense strain placed on them.

Slowly, she rose from her spot, wiping the sweat from her brow. The child stumbled towards a tree and took a seat beneath it, seeking shelter from the hot afternoon sun.

Frisk took the bag off of her back and took out a plastic water bottle. She took off the cap and took a short sip, relieving her mouth of its dryness. Since that was all the water she was able to get her hands on, she could not afford to drink it all too quickly.

She replaced the cap and sloshed the water around in her mouth before swallowing it all down.

A long stick on the ground nearby caught her attention. Trees were not a common sight back in town, so it had interested her.

She reached over for the stick and picked it up, wielding it like a toy weapon. She tightened her grip on it, taking note of the way the bark felt against her hand.

After resting for a few more moments, she stood back up, slinging the bag back over her shoulder. She turned to the mountain's peak and pressed onwards, holding onto the stick by her side.

* * *

The child accidentally bounded forward and fell down, not having noticed the rock jutting out from the ground in her path. As she hit the ground, she felt the sharp, excruciating pain running through her leg.

Swiftly, she picked herself up and noticed the situation: her leg had flown into a branch sticking out from the side, leaving a gash through her skin.

The sight of blood sent a wave of nausea through her. A stream of it slowly crawled down from the wound, leaving a warm, sticky trail.

A low, pained whimper escaped the child's mouth.

Dropping the stick for a moment, Frisk used her fingers to carefully wipe away the blood. As she was about to wipe it against her clothes, she decided against it, leaving a streak of blood on the other leg instead.

She unrolled her sleeve and peeled a bandage from her arm. It had covered an injury that had mostly healed by then, and it was still somewhat sticky, despite being used a few times.

Without hesitation, Frisk patted it down on her newly obtained wound, letting out a sigh of relief. It still stung, but it felt a bit better.

She snapped up the stick and stood back up, finding the strength to continue.

* * *

The climb continued into the evening, the light of day fading slowly into the darkness of night.

Frisk's gaze turned upwards. When she had began her ascent, the sky was perfectly clear. Over time, however, clouds had steadily began to form, until they formed a shadowy sheet in the sky. They cast a dark, unsettling gloom on the mountain.

Something small fell onto her face. She brought her hand to it, finding that it was a drop of water.

 _Uh oh._

Frisk scanned her surroundings, searching for some shelter from the oncoming rain. The foliage on the trees wouldn't be thick enough to prevent the water from reaching her, so there was no luck hiding there.

Up ahead, she found it— making it out in the dark, her eyes focused to the wide mouth of a cavern in the mountainside.

With the destination set, she scrambled past the trees in order to reach it. Drops of moisture were already falling from the sky, landing on her clothes, on her face, on the ground around her.

Suddenly, she was yanked back, filling her with further fear and agitation. In her haste, her bag had been caught on a low-hanging branch, preventing her from moving further.

Immediately, the child freed her arms from the straps of the bag and left it behind: she could come back for it later, even if it would be soaking wet.

The rain was falling down in torrents now. Frisk desperately scaled a steep slope, still holding onto the stick in her hand.

As she drew close to the cavern, viewing the darkness that lay within, a thought occurred to her. It might contain something that wouldn't want to be disturbed. But, the rain pounding down on her clothes reminded her that it didn't really matter right now— she would worry about it later, as long as she got out of the rain.

With a final burst of speed, Frisk rushed inside, grateful to have a roof over her head. Wet and exhausted, the child let out a sigh of relief and wearily took a seat.

She viewed deeper into the cave, finding that it was too dark to explore past the entrance, but it seemed that nothing else was present, bar a few insects. She stayed close to the cave's mouth, watching as the rainfall outside slowly escalated into a downpour.

A bright flash of light from outside startled her. A few seconds later, a loud thunderclap sounded, sending her to the ground in shock. She began to curl up into the fetal position on the floor, shivering in terror.

She soon came to rest, listening to the sound of thunder and the roaring rain.

* * *

The night passed.

Once Frisk woke up, she found that the storm had ended. It was morning now, and sunlight was pouring into her surroundings.

She rose to her feet, the chirping of the birds reaching her ears.

Slowly, she began to wander outside of the cave, looking outside at the world beneath her. She had a choice to make: either continue up the mountain further, or quit now and make her way back down.

However, there was something about the cave that had protected her from the rain that spoke of so much to explore. Frisk began to turn around, unable to resist the urge to explore it.

* * *

The child quietly descended further into the cavern, taking small, careful steps.

The sunlight grew dimmer, but did not cease to be present entirely. Long vines snaked along the walls, leaves catching what little sunlight they could. In the corner, a tiny lizard hopped from one rock to another, chasing down a cockroach scuttling about.

As she went a little further, she took a sharp intake of air at the sight that greeted her, nearly stumbling backwards. In the back of the cave, surrounded by vines, stones, and the roots of trees… lay a huge, gaping hole. She had never seen anything like it.

After managing to tear her eyes away from it, she looked to the floor and noticed that there appeared to be some small, muddy footprints leading up to it. Footprints of children like her, she imagined.

Frisk walked up to the pit, creating her own set of prints. She began a slow descent to approach it, trying to see where it led to. However, she was so focused on viewing what was inside, that she had forgotten to look straight down… and was unable to notice when her foot got snagged on a vine.

The child lurched forward, losing her balance. Dread rose in her heart, as she saw where she was headed: straight into the abyss.

A loud scream escaped her throat, a desperate cry for someone to help. Of course, nobody came.

As she fell, her senses began to fail her. Swiftly, her surroundings faded to pitch-black, and she could no longer hear the empty air whistling past her ears.

And like many before her, she was claimed by the earth.

* * *

 **AN (Author's Note): Welcome to "A Child Gets Stuck in a Cave."**

 **This is going to be a retelling of Undertale, but of course, with a few twists and turns along the way. I'm going for the light-hearted and goofy side of the game, something that I haven't commonly seen among the Undertale fanfiction community, sadly…**

 **Oh well. This is a thing that exists, now.**

 **Next time: underground shenanigans begin.**


	2. Fallen Down

**I should probably mention that Undertale and its characters belong to Toby Fox, by the way. Just to be on the safe side.**

* * *

Slowly, Frisk opened her eyes.

At first, all that she was able to comprehend was dull pain, which wracked her entire body.

She wearily looked around, finding that her surroundings were dark and unfamiliar. Alarmed, she glanced upwards and noticed the thin stream of sunlight reaching her location.

Frisk tried to recall how she had gotten there. There was that giant hole, then… then…

The realization came to her— she had fallen down. Welp, that wasn't good.

Almost immediately, her attention turned to the patch of flowers beneath her, trying to keep her mind off of the despair of her situation.

She assumed that the flowers had broken her fall, since they formed a cushion of sorts. They were an inviting shade of yellow, bearing large, delicate petals. She took a deep breath, noticing that they smelled pretty nice as well.

She lifted her limbs, seeing if any of them were broken, but none of them were, surprisingly. They just ached. A lot.

Letting out a groan, Frisk tried to get up. Every time she tried, however, her arms would collapse from beneath her. She eventually gave up and submitted to lying down in the flower patch.

Realizing how terrible her situation was, Frisk caught herself muttering a word that she shouldn't have said. She would have normally clapped her hands over her mouth, but at the moment she didn't really care. She was physically and mentally exhausted.

She let out a sigh, trying to tear her thoughts away from the situation at hand. Since there wasn't much she could do about it, she decided that she wasn't going to dwell over it too much.

So Frisk remained in the small, comfy flower patch, having nowhere else to go.

A part of her wanted to fall asleep and lie here forever, surrounded by pretty flowers and the single beam of light from the surface. That didn't sound like an awful way to go out. After all, there were more painful ways to die.

But then again, she would be less likely to die if she was able to find a way out of this place. That sounded like a better idea, even if it was unlikely.

The child closed her eyes and took a deep breath, deciding that she would lie there for just a little while longer.

* * *

Now that she had rested for a while, Frisk found the energy to pick herself up. She brushed some of the flower petals off of her favorite striped shirt. The child found that the stick she was holding had fallen down along with her, so she picked it up. Holding on to it made her feel a lot safer down here.

She looked around in her surroundings and noticed that there was an exit leading to another room. Taking that pathway led to an entrance with a violet archway above it.

Frisk stared at the archway with intrigue. She wasn't able to understand how a structure like this could exist, this far below the surface.

All of a sudden, she got the feeling that she wasn't alone down here. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing… she wasn't sure. Well, she would probably have to find that out eventually.

She took a deep breath and walked through.

* * *

Upon entry into the next room, Frisk saw that a much taller golden flower was present. The child thought she was seeing something strange about it, so she rubbed her eyes and looked again.

Yep. That flower had a face. And it was looking straight at her.

Was that a monster? The ones in the books seemed… less plant-like.

"Howdy!" the flower spoke in a high-pitched, charming voice, much to Frisk's surprise.

"I'm Flowey!" he greeted, with a huge grin on his face. "Flowey the Flower!"

"Umm…" Frisk stuttered, overcoming her initial shock. She was trying to come up with a response, but she never had to talk to a flower before.

"Hi," she greeted.

"Hmm… you're new to the Underground, aren'tcha?" Flowey asked, noticing Frisk's condition. "Did you fall down?"

The child was having trouble with trying to form a coherent response. "…Yeah?"

The flower continued to invitingly smile at her. "Golly, you must be so confused. And you're so young, too! Kids like you shouldn't be wandering off into holes!"

If she wasn't really confused at the moment, Frisk would have crossed her arms. She wasn't that little.

"Well, you know what?" the flower continued. "Someone ought to teach you how things work around here!"

A thought was beginning to form in the back of her head. All of a sudden, something felt so wrong about the situation.

Weren't monsters supposed to be at war with humans in the past? Why was this one trying to help her out?

"I guess little old me will have to do," Flowey stated. "Ready? Here we go!"

Despite Frisk actually not being ready at all, a floating black box with a white border appeared in the air above Flowey. All the box contained was a small red heart.

"See that heart?" Flowey began, gesturing to the box despite his lack of arms. "That is your soul, the very culmination of your being!"

Frisk didn't really see the soul as very… culmination-ish. She soon figured out how to move it around within the confines of the box by thinking about where she wanted it to move.

"Your soul starts out weak," the flower explained, still wearing an endearing grin. "But it can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV."

"Now, I know what you're thinking. What's LV stand for?"

"Levels?" Frisk inquired. Someone had donated a book about a video game, even though there weren't any video games at the orphanage. Frisk had taken a crack at it once.

Although most of the things flew over her head, she did recall that the player would get stronger with more levels. It was worth a guess.

Flowey giggled at her response.

"No, silly! Why, _LOVE_ of course! You want some love, don't you?"

"Um… maybe?" Frisk wasn't sure what would happen if her soul got stronger, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to find out.

"Of course you do!" the flower cheerfully spoke. "Don't worry, I'll share some with you!"

Flowey gave her a friendly wink.

"Here, take some of these!"

A few small spinning objects appeared outside the box, floating in place near the box's top edge.

"Down here, love is shared through little white… friendliness pellets," the flower explained. "Just… y'know, pick them up with your soul."

The child watched as the pellets spun in place, waiting for the cue to move. Something about the situation was still bothering her, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"Are you ready?" Flowey charmingly spoke. "Here they come!"

The pellets began to home in on Frisk's soul in a straight path.

"Move around!" he encouraged. "Get as many as you can!"

As the pellets approached, the child thought about it and decided that she didn't really need some love from a talking flower.

So she moved her soul out of the way at the last moment to avoid all the "friendliness pellets". They dissipated as they flew outside the boundaries of the box.

For a moment, Flowey's facial expression faltered. Frisk noticed a hint of irritation.

"Hey buddy, you missed 'em," Flowey remarked, as another set of pellets formed above the box. "Let's try again, okay?"

Again, something bothered Frisk. Why was this flower so eager to help her?

As the pellets moved in once again, Frisk moved her soul out of the way.

By this point, Flowey was clearly annoyed. He wasn't grinning anymore, that's for sure.

"Is this a joke?" he asked, forming more pellets yet again. "Are you braindead?"

 _"Run. Into. The. Bullets!"_

Bullets? Like those used in guns?

Flowey swiftly corrected himself. "Uhh… I meant 'friendliness pellets.' Yeah!"

This newfound information about these "friendliness pellets" had distracted Frisk. So this time, as the pellets flew in, the child wasn't able to move her soul out of the way fast enough to dodge them all.

And one of them was able to hit its mark.

As the pellet made contact, Frisk felt a sharp burst of pain pass through her entire body. She fell down to her knees and let out a yelp of surprise.

"You… you're trying to kill me… " she realized out loud, trembling with fear. She had never felt so much pain before… she wanted to throw up.

She lifted her head to look back at the flower. "Wh-what did I ever do to you?"

 **"You idiot."** Flowey replied, in a deep, cruel voice. **"And here I was, thinking that you already knew what was going on here… but apparently not."**

Flowey was smiling again; this time, it was an expression of pure malice. **"In this world, It's _kill_ or _be killed._ Why would anyone pass up an opportunity like this?"**

The flower surrounded the box with a ring of deadly bullets.

 ** _"Die."_**

As the bullet ring got smaller, closing in on Frisk's soul, Flowey let out a sharp, piercing laugh.

"Hey!" Frisk desperately cried. "Someone! Help!"

As soon as the words left her mouth, all the bullets suddenly dissipated, to the surprise of both of them.

"That's… not supposed to happen," a perplexed Flowey spoke, his voice returning back to normal. "Oh, well, I'll just-"

A ball of flame formed next to the flower and flew right into him. The box containing Frisk's soul disappeared as Flowey was knocked away with a shriek. Upon hitting the side of the room and landing on the ground, he swiftly retreated by burrowing into the earth.

A tall figure, presumably the source of the fire, walked up to the injured child.

"What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth…" it said in soft, motherly voice.

The figure had the head of a goat, complete with small horns, and wore a dark blue dress.

Frisk let out a cry and instinctively began to back away, not wanting to deal with another monster.

"Ah, do not be afraid, my child," the figure assured. "I am Toriel, caretaker of the ruins. I pass through the ruins every day to see if anyone has fallen down."

Toriel held out her hand, and the child tentatively raised her relatively small hand to meet it. The pain that Flowey had caused began to fade away.

The way this monster was holding her hand and the way it was looking at her gave Frisk the feeling that unlike Flowey, Toriel genuinely cared for her well-being. A smile of relief arose on her face.

The monster helped Frisk onto her feet.

"By the way, what's your name?" Toriel asked.

"My name is Frisk," the child replied. Toriel seemed like a person that she could place her trust in.

"Hello, Frisk." Toriel spoke. "You are the first human to come here in a long time. I will do my best to ensure your protection during your time here."

Toriel began to walk, taking the child with her. She walked slowly so the child could keep up.

"Come!" the goat monster beckoned. "I will guide you through the catacombs."

* * *

Toriel and Frisk entered the next room, where the the shadow of the ruins loomed above.

The child felt something rising within her. As she looked at the daunting building of purple stone, she felt her resolve solidifying, feeling an obligation deep inside of her urging her to not give up.

She was filled with determination.

They continued through the entrance, leading to a room with six large buttons on the floor.

"Welcome to your new home, innocent one," Toriel said. "Allow me to educate you in the operation of the ruins."

New home? Was she going to be stuck in the underground forever?

She reasoned that maybe that wasn't so bad. Returning to the orphanage didn't really appeal to her, after spending nearly her entire life back there.

But then again… she had friends at the orphanage. Would she be able to make those kind of friends down here? She didn't have an answer at the moment.

Toriel let go of Frisk's hand and went off to press four of the buttons. She pulled a lever on the wall and the door to the next room opened.

"The ruins are full of puzzles," Toriel began to explain, "ancient fusions between diversions and door keys."

"One must solve them to move from room to room. Please adjust yourself to the sight of them."

As the monster made her way to the next room, Frisk followed right behind. The next room was far larger than the last, and it contained pools of water with bridges over them.

"To make progress here," Toriel said, "you will need to trigger several switches. Do not worry, I have labelled the ones you need to flip."

She crossed over the first bridge and went on, until she came to a stop at the beginning of the second.

The child looked to the left and took notice of the switch nearby. It was clearly labelled, with yellow arrows pointing to it.

In addition, a message was written by Toriel right next to it, saying: "Please press this switch."

Upon taking in all these clues, Frisk went ahead and pressed the switch.

The monster soon moved on, stopping in front of an obstacle of retractable spikes. "Go on, press the switch on the left."

There were two switches this time… but one of them was similarly marked as the last.

As the child pressed it, the spikes behind Toriel retracted into the ground.

"Splendid!" Toriel applauded. "I am proud of you, little one. Let us move to the next room."

And so they did.

* * *

The next room contained a large, white plush doll filled with stuffing.

"As a human living in the Underground, monsters may attack you," the monster warned. "You will need to be prepared for this situation."

Frisk held up the stick that she was still holding onto.

"Well, I can defend myself with this…" she offered.

Toriel observed the object in the child's hand. "Hmm… that might work if a dog tried to attack you. Perhaps you could play a game of fetch!"

The child looked down at her shoes, the grip on her stick loosening.

"I was thinking of using it for something different…" she admitted, feeling a little guilty.

"Oh… you were thinking of hitting the monsters, were you not?" the monster asked.

The child silently nodded.

"No no no!" Toriel exclaimed. "There are better ways to deal with the situation than that. While you are in a fight, you should strike up a friendly conversation!"

Frisk shot a confused look at the goat monster. Back at the orphanage, when some of the kids got into fights, a conversation wouldn't do anyone any good.

"Stall for time," advised Toriel. "I will come to resolve the conflict."

She gestured to the doll. "Here, practice talking to the dummy."

Frisk approached the large doll. It wasn't very interesting, as it didn't do much other than stand around.

Toriel gave some advice. "You can say anything… I don't think the dummy will be bothered."

The child stood in front of it for a moment before she built up the courage to say something.

"So… " Frisk began. "How's life? Is being a dummy suiting you well?"

The dummy didn't do anything else, besides continuing to stand there. It looked like it was about to fall over.

Toriel broke up the silence. "Ah, good! You are very good. The next room awaits."

* * *

Upon reaching the next room, Toriel turned back to the child.

"There is another puzzle in this room… " she noted. "I wonder if you can solve it?"

Toriel's pace quickened as she progressed through the room. Frisk followed the monster to the best of her ability, as they entered a narrower hallway.

As Toriel walked on ahead, Frisk accidentally bumped into a monster. It was a small frog creature, and it didn't seem to know why it was there.

Suddenly, the box appeared in the air between them. Again, her soul was the only thing in it.

Frisk assumed that this was what Toriel was talking about when she said that monsters would attack her, so she decided to start a conversation.

She started with a simple question. "What's your name?"

The frog croaked. "I'm a Froggit."

"That's a nice name," the child said back.

Froggit didn't seem like it understood what the child said, but it appeared to be flattered anyways.

It began to rear up for an attack... that is, until Toriel noticed the Froggit.

The look on her face… well, it wasn't pleasant. Froggit croaked out an apology and scrambled away, fearing the wrath of the tall, intimidating monster.

As Frisk followed Toriel out of the hallway, she noticed that the monster was looking at the upcoming puzzle with a look of concern. When the child got a clearer look, she understood why.

A large field of spikes was located between them and the exit of the room. It wasn't very kid-friendly.

"This is the puzzle, but… here, take my hand for a moment," Toriel said.

The child hesitated, since moving around with spikes on the floor was not her idea of fun.

Toriel noted her concern. "Do not worry… I will make sure that this puzzle will not harm you."

Frisk held up her hand, allowing the monster to take ahold of it.

And then Toriel turned around and walked head-on into the spike field.

The child nearly jerked her hand back until she noticed that as the monster was approaching the spikes, they were retracting into the floor. She caught up to Toriel, following right behind her.

It seemed like the monster was taking a specific pathway as well, since she was taking a winding path through the field of spikes.

The child jolted as the spikes behind her shot back up, but overall it wasn't too awful of an experience.

"Puzzles seem a little too dangerous for now," noted Toriel, once they had finished the puzzle.

And then they went into the next room.

* * *

The next room stretched on for a long distance in front of them.

Toriel turned back to the child. "You have done excellently, my child. However, I have a difficult request to ask of you."

Her expression slightly darkened.

"I would like you to walk to the end of the room by yourself. Forgive me for this."

And with that, Toriel dashed off towards the far end of the hallway.

At first, Frisk thought the task at hand wasn't asking too much of her; she had spent plenty of time walking alone from place to place on the surface.

Then she looked at the vine-covered walls and received a grim reminder of where she was.

She was stuck down here in the underground, miles away from human any moment, something like the Froggit, or maybe even Flowey again, would be able to attack her, but this time… Toriel may not come this time to help.

So the child walked slowly, glancing around nervously, holding on to her stick for her dear life.

As she stared down the length of the empty hallway, her heart quickened. It seemed to be a long way in front of her…

She tried to reassure herself that she would be okay, but to no avail. Her heartbeat continued to race on, refusing to lessen. Beads of sweat was beginning to form on her brow.

As Frisk continued to shuffle towards the end of the hallway, she would only become more afraid. A shiver crawled down her back as she put one foot in front of the other. By now, she had placed both of her hands at the end of the stick, clutching it tightly like her life depended on it.

She forced herself to stop walking, look down at the floor, and take a few deep breaths to avoid being overwhelmed by sheer terror.

The best she could do afterwards was to look forward and get to the end.

* * *

As she finally approached the end of the room, she noticed that there was a white pillar.

Frisk noticed that an arm was sticking out from the side. She began to panic internally until she realized that it was actually Toriel's arm.

It turned out that Toriel had been hiding behind that pillar the entire time, watching over her. She had been in no real danger.

A bit relieved and a bit embarrassed at the same time, Frisk reached the end of the hallway safely.

The goat monster stepped out from behind the pillar.

"Greetings, my child. Do not worry, I did not leave you. I was merely behind— "

Toriel was surprised when Frisk rushed into her arms and gave her a big hug, tears forming in her eyes.

"I am so sorry," the monster apologized, patting the child on the back. "You must have been so afraid… "

Toriel immediately grew concerned.

She used this test with the other children that she had guided through the ruins, yet they had stumbled through it normally. A few of them had even dashed right through it. Nearly all of them questioned why they had to walk down an empty hallway.

So why did this child act this way?

Then the realization hit Toriel.

For the other humans, the first monster that they had met in the underground was either Toriel, who was friendly to the humans, or one of the monsters in the ruins, who were focused on going about their own business instead of hunting humans down.

But Frisk? The first monster she met had actively tried to _kill_ her.

"Unfortunately, there was an important reason behind this." Toriel said, her voice filled with reluctance. "So I could test your independence. I must attend to some business, and you must… stay alone for a while."

Frisk began to tug at the monster's dress, uncontrollably shivering in terror.

"I… I don't want to be alone down here…" she cried.

But Toriel needed to leave the child behind for a while. She knew that her home wasn't ready for someone to live there at the moment… and she was preparing a few surprises for the child, as well.

"I have an idea," the monster spoke. "I will give you a cell phone. If you have a need for anything, just call. That way, you shall not be truly alone."

Frisk let go as Toriel pulled out a cell phone and handed it to her.

"I've never had a cell phone before," the child stated, holding the strange device in her hands. "I don't even know how to use a regular phone."

The only phones back at the orphanage were owned by those supervising the kids.

"My number is the only one registered in there," Toriel calmly explained.

She was no expert with technology, but she did know how to work a phone.

"Just hit this button to select my number, then this green button to call me."

Frisk clicked the buttons as instructed, and a ringtone came from a pocket of Toriel's dress. The monster pulled out her own cell phone and picked up.

"You have learned how to do this quickly," Toriel noted. "That is excellent. But please remain here… it's dangerous to explore by yourself."

The child seemed to have recovered a little… but there were still doubts lurking in her head.

"Can I ask you a question?" Frisk asked.

"Feel free, my child. What do you want to ask?"

"If someone like Flowey attacked me… can I defend myself with my stick?"

Toriel took time to think about the answer before she replied.

"If there is no other way to resolve the conflict, you may use your stick," she stated.

The monster began to consider something. The other children were never afraid of that flower… because they had never seen it. And before today… neither had she.

"But to be honest… I had never seen a flower like that in the ruins," Toriel continued. "Most of the monsters that normally live here usually do not go out of their way to attack others like that."

This caught the child's attention. She looked curiously up to the monster.

"If you encounter other monsters here in the ruins… you will find that they will not bother you further, depending on the way you act," Toriel explained. "But if you do find a monster that does not… please, do not hesitate to call for my help."

"Okay." Frisk nodded.

Toriel knelt down and gave Frisk another hug. "Be good, alright?"

And with that, Toriel let go, stood up, and walked off into the next room.

* * *

From the back of the hallway, Flowey watched as the child was left behind.

A thought began to form in his head. He tried to reach out for a previous moment in time… one that he had revisited many times before.

[LOAD FAILED]

Nothing happened. Flowey tried again.

[LOAD FAILED]

Again, nothing happened.

"Darn," Flowey thought out loud to himself. "That child's the only thing that's changed… so somehow, her determination is stronger than mine."

It was a shame. He really liked having that power. But to be honest, while toying around with it was fun, it had gotten a little stale…

"Golly, I haven't loaded in such a long time, but… "

The flower let out a quiet chuckle, an idea forming within his head.

"Maybe waiting so long to reload my save was a good idea," he mused to himself. "Things just got a bit more interesting."

Flowey decided that trying to kill the child wasn't the plan… for now.

After all, it would have been a fruitless endeavor, since he wouldn't be able to get her soul that way.

But she fit into a grander scheme of things… one that would allow him to become all-powerful.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Flowey is scary as usual.**

 **By the way, I don't think it really needs to be said, but you probably should go finish Undertale to avoid spoilers if you've just stumbled into here with no idea what's going on. I can wait.**

 **Next time: puzzles, monsters, and good old exploration.**


	3. Home

Frisk sat there in the hallway for a few minutes. But that was boring.

She fiddled around on the cell phone to see if there was something to do on it, but all it could do was send and receive calls. It seemed pretty old, too.

The child let out a long, gentle sigh of boredom.

She glanced over at the entrance to the next room of the ruins. She considered going through it and exploring the ruins a little more. Hopefully, Toriel wouldn't mind too much.

But for a moment, the child hesitated.

What if she encountered more monsters? What if… Toriel wouldn't be able to save her in time?

She picked up her stick from the floor, her grip tightening on it.

The child reasoned that if worse came to worse, there was always the option of putting up a fight. The thought of bashing that flower around was a satisfying thought.

She picked herself up, placing the phone in her pocket.

The child gathered her determination and entered the next room.

* * *

The room that she entered wasn't very big. A few piles of leaves, with entrances to more rooms on the left and right. The Froggit that had bumped into her earlier was sitting in the corner.

She received a call from her phone. She picked up.

"Hello, this is Toriel," the voice on the other end spoke. "You have not left the room, have you?"

Frisk decided to remain silent.

"There are a few puzzles ahead that I have yet to explain," the voice continued. "It would be dangerous to try to solve them for yourself. Be good, alright?"

Toriel then hung up on the other end.

The child thought about it. She reasoned that the puzzles around the ruins didn't seem very dangerous. Well, there was that field of spikes… but it didn't seem to be terribly dangerous for anyone who was careful about it.

 _What harm could a few more do?_

She decided to start her exploration of the ruins by approaching the Froggit. Fortunately, the Froggit didn't seem like it wanted to attack her, thanks to Toriel having scaring it off earlier.

"Excuse me, human," it said, looking up to her. "I have some advice for you about battling monsters."

Information about battling monsters seemed important, since she didn't want to be hurt.

"If you act a certain way or fight until you almost defeat them," the Froggit continued, "they might not want to battle you anymore.

The monster looked up to the child. "If a monster doesn't want to fight you, please… use some mercy, human."

When Toriel meant when she said that the monsters were easily satisfied… that have been what she meant.

Frisk thanked it for its advice and took the left entrance. All that it contained was a bowl of candy on a stand, with a sign that said to take one.

The child took one of the candies. She sniffed it, making sure it wasn't some strange flavor, then popped it into her mouth. It had a distinct taste.

Then she took another one and pocketed it, because candy wasn't something she often enjoyed on the surface. She felt disgusted with herself as she did it, but hey, free candy was the best type of candy.

As she walked back into the other room, a small, fluffy winged creature bumped into her.

The box popped up again. Frisk raised her stick, observing the monster that she had gotten in a fight with.

The Whimsun was avoiding eye contact with her. It seemed to be a bit too sensitive to fight.

"I'm sorry," it meekly muttered. "Please forgive me…"

Frisk pointed her stick at the monster and waved it in a threatening fashion, hoping to scare it away.

The creature absolutely freaked out, edging away from the child. "Please, stop it… I can't handle this…"

The monster attacked back. Within the box, white moths began to fly in a circle around Frisk's soul. Her soul remained in its spot, as Frisk was afraid to move it.

The small creature was hyperventilating, having become fearful of the child.

Frisk felt awful, so she wanted to apologize. As she said the first few words, however, the Whimsun burst into tears and began to flutter away, letting out a quiet wail. As it did so, the battle box disappeared.

"Wait!" the child cried. "I didn't mean to—"

But it was too late. Whimsun had already left the room.

Frisk felt awful, terrorizing such a small, timid creature. But she quickly shrugged this experience off, since she didn't get hurt.

 _If avoiding conflict with monsters is this easy…_ _perhaps there's hope for me down here._

With this in mind, she went through the other entrance.

* * *

The next room was about as simple as the last. It appeared to be a mere passageway to the next room, but the ground was crumbling away near the middle of it.

Frisk tentatively stepped on the unstable ground, finding that it easily fell apart. However, there appeared to be a leaf pile at the bottom to catch her fall, so she went ahead and jumped through the hole that she had created.

Down there, she glanced around the room at the bottom. There were two sets of stairs that led to the upper floor, but as the child rose out of the pile to observe them, she heard a rustling noise from the pile, stopping her in her tracks.

As Frisk approached the source of the noise, a Froggit jumped out and started a fight.

"I like your eyes," the child blurted out, since she had noticed that the Froggit earlier had responded positively to a compliment… so maybe this one would too?

Fortunately for her, this Froggit was also flattered. It also continued to attack, however, since there was no Toriel around to interrupt it.

A white object resembling a frog appeared in the box containing Frisk's soul. She directed her soul away as the frog leaped into the air to try to hit it. When it missed, the creature soon dissipated.

Because the compliment had placated the Froggit, it didn't seem that it wanted to continue fighting after that attack.

"We don't have to fight anymore," Frisk suggested. "You can continue whatever you were doing in those leaves."

The Froggit's agreement with this was expressed by a hearty croak, and soon it had covered itself with leaves again and fallen asleep. Frisk had noticed that it had left a few gold-colored coins for her, likely the currency of the underground.

The child found that one of the stairs led to the other side of the hallway. She climbed those, and popped out on the other side of the crumbling floor.

* * *

Upon entering the next room, Frisk's phone once again received a phone call.

"Hello? This is Toriel. For no reason in particular… which do you prefer, cinnamon or butterscotch?"

The child had tried candies of both, but only a few times in her life. She had trouble deciding which one to pick, but she eventually decided on butterscotch.

"Butterscotch… I think…"

"Oh, I see. Thank you very much!"

Toriel hung up.

Huh. The child bet that Toriel thought she was still waiting in the hallway.

As Frisk took another step, her phone rang again.

"By the way… you do not dislike cinnamon, do you?" Toriel asked, once the child had picked up. "Would you turn up your nose if you found it on your plate?"

"No… " Frisk replied, being a bit confused by these seemingly unrelated calls about her taste preference.

"Thank you for being patient, by the way."

With that, Toriel hung up again. It seemed that the monster was still suspecting nothing.

Now that her phone wasn't distracting her, Frisk took a glance at the room, seeing that there was a line of spikes on the floor preventing her progress. However, there was a switch with a rock next to it.

A sign on the wall claimed that "three out of four grey rocks recommend you push them."

This comment made Frisk think of a possibility: if a monster could take the shape of a flower, then maybe there was a rock-shaped monster. Maybe there was a Rocky the Rock somewhere down here.

Actually… what _could_ be and _couldn't_ be a monster?

The child decided to dismiss the matter, because otherwise she would have been paranoid that everything was trying to kill her.

The child went to do as suggested. She knelt down and placed her hands on the side of the rock, getting a feel of where to push.

She tensed up her muscles and shoved the rock, summoning all of her strength. She kept on pushing until her arms ached, and she was forced to stop.

The child rose back up to see how far she had managed to get. To her dismay, she found that the rock had moved an entire inch.

This was going to suck, wasn't it?

* * *

After plenty of struggling, Frisk finally managed to push the rock onto the switch and lower the spikes.

As she crossed over the retracted obstacle, however, she nearly tripped over what appeared to be a blob of gelatin.

The blob engaged her in battle. A scent of sweet limes wafted through the air as it began to wiggle in a mesmerizing manner.

Before Frisk could wonder what to do with it, her phone rang.

"You do not have any allergies, do you?" Toriel asked.

"What kind?"

"An allergy to milk or eggs, perhaps?"

"I don't have allergies to either of those. Why do you ask?"

"Huh? Oh, no reason... No reason at all."

The monster hung up, still leaving Frisk confused on the purpose of her call.

The child turned back to the situation at hand. The monster in front of her didn't seem to have any limbs… hmm…

Frisk turned around and began to walk away.

To her surprise, it actually worked. The battle box disappeared, as the blob was unable to pursue her.

That wasn't very difficult.

* * *

The next room contained a large field of unstable ground between Frisk and the next room's entrance.

Like the first room with the crumbling floors, the child tapped the ground with her foot and made a hole where she could see a leaf pile below, then jumped down.

Piles of leaves filled the room below, but there was a clear, leafless path. She stumbled to the end of the room, but she wasn't able to find any stairs to the upper floor.

Rather, there was a sign: "Please don't step on the leaves."

She sheepishly glanced back at the path through the leaves that she had carved. But then… she began to consider something.

She walked to the leafless path and looked upwards. Just as she suspected: the ground was stabler along the path because there were structural supports immediately above it.

The sign wasn't a mere request; it was a hint of how to solve the puzzle.

Frisk went back to the other side of the room and climbed up the stairs. Recalling the point of entry into the field where there weren't any leaves below, the child found firm ground to walk upon.

She wasn't exactly sure of where the path without leaves continued below, but she didn't have to be; she used her stick to test where the ground was solid and where it crumbled. Using this method, she was able to find the path to the other side.

* * *

The next room contained another spike obstacle, but contained three switches as well. Next to those switches… were three rocks.

Frisk let out a groan. This was definitely going to suck.

She struggled to get the first two rocks on their corresponding switches. Well, at least the solution seemed to be pretty straightforward…

That is, until she went to push the third rock.

"Whoa there, pardner!" it yelled, causing the child to take a step backwards in surprise. "Who said you could push me around?"

It turned out that the child was right about the possibility of a rock monster.

"Well… I need a rock to be placed on that switch over there," Frisk noted, pointing to the uncovered switch. "Perhaps you could move, if you don't want to be pushed?"

"Okay, just for you, pumpkin." The rock moved a short distance towards the switch. Not far enough, however.

"A bit more, please?" Frisk requested.

"Alrighty, how's this?" The rock moved off in a different direction.

"That's the wrong direction," Frisk pointed out.

"Okay, I think I got it." The rock moved back on track and moved all the way to the switch. "Was that helpful?"

"Yeah." The child began to walk towards the lowered spike obstacle, but as she got close, the spikes shot back up.

Frisk immediately stopped in her tracks and glanced backwards. The third rock had shifted slightly off the switch.

"Hey!"

"Hmm?" the rock noted. "You wanted me to stay there? You're giving me a real workout."

The rock moved back onto the switch, allowing Frisk to bypass the obstacle.

The child thanked the rock — surely not something she did every day — and moved on.

* * *

The next room didn't have a puzzle. Just a piece of cheese on a table and a mousehole in the corner. The child took this opportunity to sit down and take a break.

She pulled out her phone from her pocket. Why not give Toriel a call?

* * *

Toriel was standing around in the kitchen of her home, hard at work. A white dog was napping on the floor.

Her cell phone rung. The monster placed down the bowl filled with the ingredients she was mixing and picked up the phone.

"Hello, Frisk," Toriel greeted.

"Your eyes are like the Ruins," the voice from the other end began. "I keep getting lost in them!"

Of course, it was meant as a joke, but it was taken in a different way.

"…Huh? Are you… flirting with me?" the monster asked.

"Uhhh… um…" Frisk stuttered. "Maybe?"

"Oh, heh.. heh... Ha ha ha!"

"How adorable…" the monster said, finding the child's antics amusing. "I could pinch your cheek! But you can certainly find better than an old woman like me."

"That's true," the child on the other end acknowledged. "But this phone only has one number!"

Toriel laughed some more in reaction to this.

"Are you doing well?" she asked.

"Yeah!"

"You must be bored," the monster noted. "I should have given a book to you. My apologies. Here, do you want to hear a joke?

"Okay!"

Toriel began the joke. "What did the skeleton tile his roof with?"

"I don't know," Frisk stated. "What does a skeleton tile his roof with?"

" _Shin_ -gles!"

The joke was greeted by silence from the other end.

"Well, I thought it was amusing," the monster admitted. "Anyways… you are still waiting in that room, are you not?"

The child went quiet.

"Frisk…please, tell me if you are or not," Toriel asked, becoming a little concerned.

The child proceeded carefully, with a tone of innocence. "Would you be mad if I said no?"

"A little."

Frisk let out a sigh, feeling a pang of guilt.

"Okay, so maybe I got bored," she admitted. "I'm not hurt, though!"

"That is a relief," Toriel stated. "I had worried that you run into some trouble if you continued. Where are you right now?"

The child immediately replied. "There's a table with some cheese on it. I think the cheese is stuck."

"I see… thank you for being honest with me."

Frisk began to consider something.

"Can I ask you something?" the child asked.

"What is it, my child?"

"Can I call you 'mom'?"

The goat monster thought over it. It had been such a long time since someone had called her "Mom"… the term had become a little bittersweet.

And this child barely knew her…

"I know it sounds kinda silly," Frisk continued, "but… I… I would like to call you that…"

Toriel took a deep breath.

"Well… I suppose… would that make you happy?" she asked. "To call me 'Mother?'"

The child looked to the floor. "I guess it would…"

"Well then, call me whatever you like!" the monster stated.

"…thanks, mom."

"It seems that you are doing well…" Toriel observed, "so I will not stop you from proceeding further."

"But if you find that you cannot proceed, do not worry," she continued. "I will come for you when I am finished. If you do not call back and state where you are… I will head to the room with the cheese. Is that alright?"

"Alright," the child agreed. "See you soon."

"Be good," the monster said in reply.

With that, Toriel hung up.

As she returned to her work, the dog on the floor awoke. It excitedly let out a series of yips.

"No, you cannot have some pie." Toriel stated. "You are just going to eat it all…"

The dog barked out in reply.

"Snoring on the floor is not help," the goat monster pointed out.

The dog continued to bark, explaining that it wasn't snoring, but cheering her on its sleep.

Toriel huffed in frustration.

"The answer is still no."

* * *

In the next room, an object upon a pile of leaves blocked the way.

On closer inspection, it appeared to be a white blanket covering something. But the blanket had a face. And it constantly repeated the letter "z", to provide the impression that it was sleeping.

The child approached it and gave it a nudge with the tip of her shoe. A battle box appeared, and the blanket flew upwards to position itself above the box.

It turned out the blanket was really a ghost, with large eyes and a small mouth.

"Hello!" greeted Frisk. The ghost didn't appear to be very happy, so she gave a ghost a huge smile.

"heh…" the ghost quietly murmured. "my name is napstablook…

He stared down at the box. "are we supposed to battle now? oh no… "

The ghost began to cry, his white tears falling down into the battle box. A tear landing on Frisk's soul stung, but not an awful lot.

The tears soon came to an end, signalling the end of Napstablook's attack. That meant she had the opportunity to do something.

The ghost continued to look down in the dumps, so Frisk decided to tell him a joke.

"What's a ghost's favorite kind of fruit?" she began.

"i don't know… i don't eat fruit very often…"

"Boo-berries!" the child said with a grin.

The ghost chuckled in response, its mood seeming to improve.

Napstablook didn't cry for his attack this time. Instead, harmless grey text appeared around Frisk's soul, reading "Really not feeling up to it right now. Sorry."

"do you want to see something…?" he murmured. Frisk nodded.

"let me try..." The ghost began to cry again, but the tears flew upwards instead of falling down. These tears formed a white top hat upon his head.

"i call it dapperblook…" Napstablook mentioned. "do you like it?"

Frisk beamed with excitement. "That's really cool!"

"oh gee…" Napstablook's spirits (no pun intended) were lifted. Because he felt much better, he felt free to end the battle.

"i usually come to the ruins because there's no one around…" the ghost explained. "but today i met someone nice…"

He glanced down at the pile of leaves beneath him. "oh, i'm rambling again. i'll get out of your way…"

With that, Napstablook floated away.

* * *

Frisk proceeded into a room containing a few cobwebs and a sign reading "Spider Bake Sale. All proceeds go to real spiders".

Many spiders scuttered around the room, greeting their new guest. The child waved hello back, overcoming her initial surprise.

According to the signs placed above the cobwebs, Spider Donuts were seven gold coins, and Spider Cider was eighteen gold coins. Between finding a few coins on the ground and the money received from sparing that Froggit, she had only had enough for one Spider Donut.

Frisk dropped seven coins into one of the cobwebs. One of the spiders then brought a purple donut to her in exchange.

Not having eaten anything other than a piece of candy since falling down into the ruins, she immediately took a bite out of it.

Not only was it pretty good, it caused the sting of pain from Napstablook's tears that she had shrugged off earlier faded away. Monster food was neat.

Since that room was a dead end, she backtracked to the previous room and went another direction. She ended up in a passageway.

A sign read: "Did you miss it? Spider Bakesale down and to the left. Come eat food made by spiders, for spiders, of spiders!"

Of spiders? Frisk looked down at her half-eaten donut.

On one hand, it was made of those eight-legged bugs, but on the other hand, it didn't taste all too bad.

She shrugged and finished off the rest of the donut. It was food, after all.

The rest of the passage contained a few Froggits that brought some advice to her, but their advice didn't seem to make much sense.

What was an X or an F4? Apparently names can turn yellow?

As Frisk was leaving the room, her phone rang.

"Hello?" the voice from the other end said. "I just realized that has been a while since I last cleaned up. I was not expecting to have company so soon."

The child remembered that Toriel said that she was the first human to have fallen down in a long time.

 _How long had it been since the last one?_

"There are probably a lot of things lying about here and there," the monster continued. "You can pick them up, but do not carry more than you need. Someday you might see something you might really like. You will want to leave room in your pockets for that."

With that, Toriel hung up.

* * *

Upon entering the next room, Frisk noticed that there were six spots in the room where the ground was unstable. The nearby sign said that there was only one switch, presumably to the obstacle nearby.

Frisk let out a huff at the sight of the spike obstacle at the end of the room. What was it with the ruins and spikes everywhere anyways?

She walked up to the nearest spot and jumped down into it.

As she landed in a leaf pile in the chamber below, she came upon a peculiar sight: something resembling a large carrot was half-buried in the ground.

It popped out of the ground once she got close to it. The carrot turned to reveal a huge face on its side, putting on a wide grin.

"How are you?" she greeted.

"Plants can't talk, dummy," the monster stated.

"But you just…" the child began, before deciding to simply drop the issue.

A rain of white carrots fell from the top of the box.

Meanwhile, the smell of steamed carrots and peas that the monster emitted was making the child kinda hungry. She wasn't a terribly picky eater, unlike some of the kids she knew.

She placed a hand on her stomach, which the monster interpreted as asking for a healthy meal.

"Eat your greens," the monster said. "They're good for you…"

Vegetables fell down and began to bounce around within the box, but Frisk noticed that one of them was green.

She guided her soul to touch it. Instead of hurting her, it dissipated as it touched the soul, making Frisk feel a little fuller. Meanwhile, the monster nodded, satisfied by the action.

"Ate your greens," it remarked.

With that, the monster returned back into the hole in the floor, ending the battle.

She glanced around, finding the stairs back to the upper floor.

* * *

Frisk fell down the rest of the holes, one at a time. She found out each hole led to a different pit, but they all had stairs back to the upper level.

She found another one of the carrot monsters in one of the pits. Like the previous one, all it wanted to do was to give the child some greens.

The child had found a fallen Napstablook in another pit. After she reminded it that ghosts could fly, as she noticed during her battle with it, Napstablook was able to escape.

Another pit contained a red ribbon on the ground. Frisk picked it up and tied it in a knot on her head. Maybe if she looked cuter, monsters wouldn't attack as hard.

Another pit contained absolutely nothing.

Finally, the last pit contained a switch to allow progress to the next room.

* * *

The next room was intriguing. A sign read: "The far door is not an exit, It simply marks a rotation in perspective."

Throughout the room, there were what appeared to be green, blue, and red switches. The blue one could be seen from the entrance, right in front of a pillar, but the red and green ones were concealed behind others.

A spike obstacle was located at the end of the room, but it had already been retracted. Frisk shrugged and moved to the next room.

What greeted her was similar in appearance in the previous room, despite having taken a ninety-degree turn. She saw the blue switch in front of a pillar again, and when she approached the other pillars, she found that the red and green switches were behind those, much like the layout of the previous room.

The only difference was that there was a different sign. "If you can read this, press the blue switch."

The child walked back to it, to find that a monster with a single large eye had shown up next to it. It was immediately joined by another monster resembling a large cockroach. Both of them engaged Frisk in battle at the same time.

"I'm just a poor Loox. Please don't pick on me…" muttered the one-eyed creature. It seemed to be attacking out of self-defense. "Pick on Migosp instead…"

On the other hand, the cockroach, likely the Migosp that Loox mentioned, was more hostile.

"Obey the overmind!" it cried. "Legion! We are legion!"

Noticing that Migosp was unlikely to be reasoned with at the moment, Frisk turned her attention to the Loox.

"Hey," she said. "I don't want to pick on you."

This reassured the monster. "Finally, someone who gets it."

Loox and Migosp attacked at the same time. Loox dropped spheres into the battle box, which bounced around and got faster. Migosp caused cockroaches to fly in, avoiding the middle of the box. Frisk's soul was able to avoid both attacks.

Once the attack finished, Frisk told the Loox that it didn't need to fight if it didn't want to anymore. It thanked her and walked away.

Migosp watched as the other monster left the room. Once it did, Migosp went under a mood change, becoming noticeably more cheerful like it didn't have a care in the world.

"Nothing like alone time!" it gleefully spouted, doing a little jig. "Being me is the best! Woo hoo!"

The monster didn't even bother trying to attack Frisk anymore. Instead of a normal attack, the only thing that became present in the box was a single dancing cockroach.

The child ended the battle by pressing the nearby blue switch and leaving, as the monster clearly didn't want to continue fighting. It made no attempt to pursue her; it continued to stand there with a huge grin on its face.

* * *

The next two rooms were pretty similar to the previous, with similar layouts and button positions. The only thing that differed was which button to push to remove the obstacle.

Frisk found the puzzle pretty pointless. Maybe it was meant to harder to solve from a different perspective? Or maybe it was to weed out the colorblind?

As the child entered the next room, she noticed that there were two paths. One contained a large leaf pile, but the other had some ivy growing across the floor. Taking the path with the ivy found her in a room containing a Froggit and a stairway to a higher floor.

"Just between you and me…" the Froggit began. "I saw Toriel come out of here just a little while ago.

"She was carrying some groceries, but I didn't ask what they were for. We're all too intimidated to talk to her."

The child wondered if Toriel was preparing something. Was it for her?

Frisk took the stairs upwards. It led to a balcony with a view of the rest of the ruins. It was composed of countless buildings of purple rock, but it appeared that they had seen better days.

A few of the buildings had large cracks in them. and it seemed like the place would eventually fall apart over time. The city looked like it was to be inhabited and bustling with activity at one point, but now it looked sparsely populated.

She looked around on the balcony. On the ground was a knife made out of plastic.

Frisk picked it and pressed the blade to her finger; while the knife didn't break the surface of her skin, it was slightly sharp, and with enough force it could be used as a damaging weapon.

The child placed it back on the ground, however. Toriel would probably disapprove if she was caught carrying around a knife.

Frisk walked back down the stairs and all the way back, going to the path with the leaf pile.

* * *

The room ahead had a large tree, but there were no leaves on its branches. Then had all fallen to form a leaf pile near the roots.

The child heard a familiar voice. "Oh dear, that took longer than I thought it would."

Toriel absentmindedly walked up from behind the tree and pulled out her cell phone. She looked up and noticed that the child was standing right there in front of her.

The monster walked up to greet Frisk. "You have arrived, my child. Are you hurt?"

"Not a scratch," Frisk replied. "Well, not one that hasn't been healed over… "

"That is impressive!" Toriel stated. "But still…"

The monster began to fuss over Frisk, straightening out her hair. "I should not have left you alone for so long. It was irresponsible to try to surprise you like this."

Toriel then realized she had used the word surprise, which usually a person doesn't mention to someone that he or she wanted to surprise.

"Err… well, I suppose I cannot hide it any longer. Come, small one!"

Toriel walked around the tree and into her house. In a stark contrast with the rest of the ruins, the monster's house had a cute, tidy appearance.

The sight of it filled Frisk with determination, so she followed Toriel inside.

The house was very comfy, in contrast to the rest of the ruins. The floor was made of wood, instead of the purple stone used for most of the other rooms. It felt nice to walk on.

A buttery, cinnamon smell floated through the air.

"Do you smell that?" Toriel asked. "Surprise! It is a butterscotch-cinnamon pie."

Frisk was shocked. Not many people had made anything for her before, much less a pie.

"I thought we might celebrate your arrival." Toriel continued. "I want you to have a nice time living here, so I will hold off of snail pie for tonight."

Frisk wasn't liking the sound of snail pie. She had seen a few snails in the grass before, and they looked gross.

She wouldn't tell that to Toriel, though. The child tried to keep a straight face.

"Here, I have another surprise for you," Toriel stated, beckoning her into the hallway to the right.

* * *

The hallway contained a rug on the floor, a few decorations, and the doors to the rooms. The two of them stopped at the entrance of one of these doors.

"This is it…" the monster said. "A room of your own. I hope you like it!"

Toriel ran her fingers through Frisk's hair. Doing this brought back some good memories to the goat monster.

She then smelled something a bit off.

"Is something burning? Um, make yourself at home!"

She left, presumably to tend to her hopefully-not-burnt pie.

Frisk opened the door and walked inside, taking a look around in her new room.

A cozy bed sat in the corner, and along the back side of the room sat a closet, a shelf containing a few objects, a box filled with children's shoes, and a lamp.

Frisk examined the toy box at the foot of the bed. It contained some cool toys, but she had outgrown toys a long time ago. She didn't bother with them anymore, because there were only a few toys that the orphanage could get their hands on.

The child opened the closet and took a look. Unlike the box containing the shoes, which came in a multitude of sizes, most of what the closet contained looked like they would fit her perfectly.

Frisk concluded that unless Toriel could predict the future, this was just a really uncanny coincidence.

The child let out a yawn, realizing that all that walking in the ruins had tired her out. She went to turn off the lamp, then she took off her shoes, hopped into bed, pulled the covers over her, and fell asleep.

* * *

Flowey sat in front of Toriel's house. Well, not really sit, because flowers can't sit.

He knew that Frisk would eventually get bored of the ruins. They weren't very big. She would try to leave the ruins in order to get to the rest of the underground.

Then, Toriel would try to stop the child from leaving, as she had seen the situation of children wanting to leave again and again.

The flower was curious to see how Frisk would act. Would she convince Toriel to let her go… or would she resort to violence to bypass Toriel?

Whatever Frisk did, Flowey had no doubt that it was going to be interesting.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **The mad sparing commences. I'm going to be including nearly every regular enemy, barring the ones that are hidden in the game.**

 **I'm using male pronouns for Napstablook since i'm not a huge fan of using "they", outside of dialogue. Which was one of my reasons for assigning genders to gender-neutral characters in the first place.**

 **Looking at the colored switch puzzle from a first-person perspective will lead to the rooms looking exactly the same. Huh.**

 **Anyways, this chapter's not terribly interesting on its own.**

 **Next chapter: well, you know what's happening next. Fire is falling, hearts are aching, and generally we're gonna have a sad time.**


	4. Heartache

**If you want the full experience of this chapter, look up the song "Heartache" from the Undertale OST. Don't hit play yet, though. Wait until you reach the cue within the chapter, hit play, then read on!**

* * *

Several hours passed before Frisk woke up again.

As her eyes fluttered open, it took her a moment to recall that she wasn't at the orphanage. She recounted the events that had occurred up to her arrival in her new room.

She continued to lie within her bed, since it was comfy— much more comfortable than the bed she had slept on back home, and definitely more comfortable than a cold, hard floor. She was unable to recall the last time when she felt so refreshed.

The child stared up at the ceiling, her thoughts beginning to drift elsewhere.

It was nice, having a room to herself. By the time she woke up, the sleeping quarters at the orphanage were usually bustling with activity. The room that Toriel had provided gave her more privacy— more time to lie down and think. She liked that.

For a moment, Frisk put on a frown. Was this what normal kids experienced? Having a comfy bed prepared for them, having parents who cared for their every need… was it normal for them to feel wanted like this?

Well, she wouldn't mind getting used to it, if it was the case.

Slowly, the child managed to pick up her head from the pillow. As she glanced around the dimly-lit room, rubbing her eyes, she wondered if it was morning, only to remember that she was still underground where the sun didn't shine. It was fairly obvious why this room lacked a window.

Drowsily, she pulled herself from the bed and hopped off of it. She stumbled over to the other end of the room and turned the light on, flooding the room with a warm glow.

Frisk automatically wandered to the center of the room, where she noticed that something had been placed on the floor: a plate with a slice of pie on it, accompanied by a small fork.

The child knelt down and carefully picked it up. She returned to her bed, taking a seat on top of it, and crossed her legs, holding the plate out in front of her.

Picking up the fork, she broke off a piece at the tip of the pie and brought it to her lips, finding that it was still warm, yet not scorching hot. Upon placing it in her mouth, her first impression was that the pie tasted like candy, but the flavor was much stronger and richer. It was incredibly creamy, too.

Enticed by the pie's fragrance, Frisk eagerly polished the rest of it off, silently declaring it as the best thing she had ever eaten. When it was no more, she stared down at her empty plate and placed it off to the side.

Well, it was time to do _something,_ whatever that was. As much as she wanted to stay in her room, there wasn't much to do in it, and she was all out of pie.

The child hopped off of her bed, taking a moment to stretch her limbs. Her feet began to shuffle across the floor, heading straight for the exit. Cautiously, she pushed the door open and went through it, not making a sound.

She took one last glance at her room before she closed the door behind her.

* * *

Frisk found Toriel sitting in a reading chair in front of a warm, crackling fireplace. A book was propped open in front of her, with a pair of reading spectacles in front of her eyes.

The monster looked up, placing the book down on her lap.

"Up already, I see?" she said. "Um, I want you to know how glad I am to have someone here."

Toriel nodded to herself. It had certainly been a while since the last time.

"There are so many old books I want to share," she continued. "I want to show you my favorite bug-hunting spots. I've also prepared a curriculum for your education."

A question was formed in the child's head: how long _had_ Toriel been preparing for humans falling into the Underground?

The monster went on. "This may come as a surprise to you… but I have always wanted to be a teacher."

She pondered her words for a second. "… Actually, perhaps that isn't very surprising. Still… anyways, I am glad to have you living here, Frisk."

Toriel put on a sheepish expression.

"Oh, I should not have rambled for so long," she stated. "Did you come here because you wanted something?"

There were many things that Frisk wanted to ask, but… something in particular came to her; she could ask when she was going to go back to the surface.

The child began to open her mouth… but nothing came out. The words were right on the tip of her tongue, but they wouldn't leave.

It was because that right then and there, she realized that Toriel's house _was_ her home: well, it certainly felt like it. And Toriel… she wanted someone to live with her, so it wouldn't be nice to express any intentions to leave her behind.

"Nothing," the child eventually stated, glancing down at her socks.

"Well, if you need anything, do not be afraid to ask."

Toriel then decided to change the subject.

"Would you like to hear about his book I am reading? It is called '72 Uses for Snails.'"

Frisk nodded, taking a seat on the floor at the monster's feet. Toriel propped up her book, scanning through the pages.

"Hmm…oh, you might like this one. Did you know that snails… make terrible shoelaces?"

The child let out a short giggle in response. "Thanks for the information, mom."

When the monster had heard that Frisk had referred to her as mom… for the first time in a while, a smile of contentment appeared on Toriel's face.

She wouldn't be lonely anymore.

* * *

A few hours later, the two of them were in Frisk's room, sitting on the floor. A book sat wide open in front of them.

It was decided that a few hours a day, Toriel would teach Frisk, just like if she was going to school. However, it wasn't really like school; instead of doing classwork and listening to lectures… it was more like story time, really, since it mainly consisted of reading from books.

"Trapped behind the barrier and fearful of further human attacks, we retreated," Frisk read out loud, projecting her voice. "Far, far into the earth we walked, until we reached the cavern's end."

She continued on. "This was our new home, which we named… Home. As great as our king is, he is pretty lousy at names."

She looked up to Toriel, who sat besides her.

"You are doing well," the monster approved. "Of course, most of us did not stay at Home, as you will find out."

Something occurred to Frisk. "Then what are you still doing here?"

It was strange, now that she thought about it. A kind, motherly person didn't seem to fit a place where there weren't many others around.

"Someone has to take care of this place," Toriel calmly explained. "Besides, it is possible for a human to fall down here. It would not be good for them to be alone… especially one as young as you."

"I suppose you're right," the child stated.

Toriel looked down at the book open in front of them. "Anyways, shall we continue?"

"Sure."

* * *

Once the lesson had concluded, they stopped for lunch.

The slice of snail pie Frisk had wasn't terrible, surprisingly. The taste was bearable, and ignoring the fact that she was eating _snails_ helped, too. It was just… really unique. There wasn't anything that she could compare it to.

Once Frisk had gotten the last of it down, she rose from her seat. Toriel was sitting nearby in her reading chair, reading another book, so the child approached, having little better to do.

The monster looked to her, seeing how she was waiting patiently for something to do.

"Oh, you must be a little bored," Toriel noticed. "I had an idea. You have solved all the puzzles by yourself, have you not?"

Frisk nodded. She had not found them very challenging.

"Perhaps you should go for a walk through the ruins, Frisk," the monster suggested. "After all, it is healthy for you to have some exercise now and then."

Toriel rose from her seat, shutting the book in her lap. "This time, I shall accompany you to make sure that none of the monsters will bother you.

Toriel placed the book back onto the shelf and began to head off to another area of the house. "By the way… there is something that I want to give to you. Wait here for a moment."

When she came back, she held up a simple backpack, consisting of a couple of large pockets for storing things.

"You can use this to hold onto anything that you find," she explained, letting the child take ahold of it.

Frisk slung it over her back, finding that it fit her well: not too big, not too small, but just right.

"I will need to clean up first," Toriel stated, heading towards the kitchen. "If you wish, you can wait for me outside."

Once the monster had left the room, Frisk went the other direction, heading towards the exit of Toriel's home.

* * *

As the child stepped through the entranceway, she looked at the ground— and froze at the sight that immediately greeted her.

There, right on the ground in front of her, was the toy knife she had dropped earlier. It had been left behind at the balcony… so it _really_ shouldn't have been there.

After taking a glance behind her to make sure that Toriel wasn't nearby, she hurriedly kicked it away, sending it into a nearby pile of dead leaves. With haste, upon making her way towards the pile, she crouched down and completely covered the knife. The leaves crunched in her hands as she picked them up by the handful, depositing them over the weapon until it couldn't be seen.

Frisk picked up her head and looked around, scanning the room. For a moment, she managed to catch something— a glimpse of bright yellow.

She took another glance, but it had completely disappeared.

Shakily, the child rose, staring down at the pile where the knife was buried. Slowly, she backed away from it— only to find that Toriel was now standing behind her.

Frisk spun around, a yelp of fright escaping her mouth.

"Is… is there something wrong?" the monster asked, concerned by how anxious she was.

Frisk nervously shook her head no.

Gently, Toriel placed her hands on the child's shoulders. "There there, now. As long as you are under my care, you do not need to worry."

Steadily, the child began to calm down, setting the knife's sudden appearance aside.

"You silly child," the monster amusedly stated. "You have forgotten to put on your shoes!"

Frisk glanced down at her feet, noticing that it was true. It was a little embarrassing.

"Before we go, you should put them on," Toriel suggested. "You might find it uncomfortable to walk around without them."

"Alright, mom," the child replied, wearing a grin on her face.

* * *

The next few days would continue like this: lessons with Toriel, homemade meals, strolls through the ruins, rinse and repeat. Well, she wasn't sure how much time had passed, but that seemed like a reasonable guess.

The things that she learned were actually pretty interesting. Frisk learned mainly about the history of the monsters, and the various types of plants found in the Underground. For example, she learned that some of the plants in Toriel's house were called typha, or water sausages.

She also learned some other tidbits along the way: various pieces of cooking advice, bad puns, the like.

When the lessons ended, Frisk was given some free time. For the most part, she spent that time wandering through the ruins.

After another trip with Toriel, Frisk was allowed to walk by herself: as long as she didn't place herself in any danger, of course. Since many of the monsters in the ruins had seen Toriel with the child, they didn't bother to attack her, since the goat monster had frightened them.

Still, those who wouldn't run away from her at first sight didn't mind a friendly hello. Some monsters would talk with her, even though their conversations weren't very deep. Some monsters would try to give her things, such as coins, or in the carrot's monster's case, vegetables. And some monsters, like Migosp and Moldsmal, the blob of gelatin, wouldn't even notice her at all.

* * *

During one of these strolls, a tune playing from one of the rooms had reached her ears. Intrigued, the child followed it, finding out that it came from the room with the spider bake sale.

Scattered across the room's floor were many spiders, clapping along to the music with their legs. Off to the corner sat a CD player hooked up to a speaker, with Napstablook floating over it.

Frisk waved to the ghost, who floated over to meet her.

"oh… hi… " greeted Napstablook.

He timidly began to stare at the ground. "this is awkward… but what's your name? i forgot to ask earlier…"

"My name's Frisk!" said the child.

"frisk…" the ghost repeated. "ok, i wont forget it."

"What's going on?" Frisk asked, watching the spiders crawl around in sync to the music.

Napstablook looked back up and turned to them.

"since i made such a great friend here…" he murmured, "i thought it would be nice to talk to the others in the ruins… and the spiders wanted some help. i'm their part-time producer now…"

The child drew closer to the scene. "Oh, is that what's the music's for?"

"i made them a song to help them attract more customers…" the ghost explained. . "but i don't have the heart to tell them that a room filled with dancing spiders might scare people away… oh no…"

"Well, the spiders seem to like it," Frisk noted. "It's a nice song."

It was indeed very catchy.

"oh… thank you." Slowly, Napstablook floated away, returning to the corner. "have a nice day, frisk."

On the way out, she bought another spider donut and stored it in her backpack, saving it as a snack for later. It was supposedly for a good cause, after all, although she wasn't entirely sure of what it was.

* * *

The toy knife kept returning to its spot in front of Toriel's house.

Frisk tried leaving it at the balcony, where she had found it, but it still returned. She did this several more times, but despite this, it would keep coming back.

It was almost as if it wanted to be picked up, or that someone wanted her to have it. That was a ridiculous idea, though. She couldn't think of any use for it.

Eventually, Frisk grew tired of this and hid it in her backpack. She planned to get rid of it eventually.

* * *

Life in the ruins was peaceful. Toriel took good care of Frisk, and the child got to know a few of the monsters well. Life was falling into a peaceful rhythm.

Yet after a few days, Frisk found herself wanting to leave.

The ruins were beginning to get a little boring, since she had already befriended most of the monsters there and explored every corner. In addition, she had learned from Toriel's history books that there were other places in the underground beyond the ruins, and that made her a little curious.

Frisk began to wonder if there was a way out of the ruins in the first place.

Toriel and Frisk had just finished reading for the day. The child decided that this would be a good time to ask.

"Mom… I have a question," she stated.

The monster immediately replied. "What is it, my child?"

"Not for any specific reason, but… is there a way to exit the ruins?"

Immediately, it was clear that Toriel was a little surprised by this question. Was she doing something wrong? Why did this child want to know?

Did the child want to leave?

The monster's attention drifted away from Frisk, realizing that there was something that had to done. She really should have done it a long time ago.

"…I have to go do something. Stay here."

Toriel stood up and fled the child's room, closing the door behind her.

Confused by the sudden departure, Frisk rose to her feet. Quietly, she crept over to the door and opened it slightly, allowing her to observe where Toriel was going.

She saw that Toriel had left the hallway where her room was located, taking a turn to her right.

The child headed back towards the center of her room. She put on her shoes, as well as placing the backpack onto her back.

She readjusted the ribbon in her hair and silently exited her room.

Once the hallway had ended, she turned to her right and noticed stairs, headed down into the basement. She had wandered down there out of curiosity before, but Toriel had found her and took her back upstairs, claiming that it was dangerous to play there.

The child was beginning to understand the real reason behind keeping her away.

Summoning her determination, Frisk cautiously descended into the basement, her steps light with apprehension.

* * *

The basement contained a long passageway, its walls and floor made of the same purple stone as the rest of the ruins. It was silent, bar the sound of Toriel's feet walking into the distance.

Frisk brought her arms closer to herself, feeling a slight shiver come over her. She looked into the distance, seeing that Toriel was not far ahead.

Anxiously, the child ran up to the monster from behind. Once she got close, she lightly yanked on the monster's dress.

She was unable to get Toriel to turn around, but the monster did stop walking.

"You wish to know how to leave the ruins, do you not?" Toriel spoke. "Ahead of us lies its end. A one-way exit to the rest of the underground."

The goat monster took a deep breath before she continued, with the soft, reassuring voice that Frisk had always heard from her… but slightly… stricter?

"I am going to destroy it. No one will ever be able to leave again. Now be a good child and go upstairs."

Frisk didn't. As Toriel continued on forward, the child scurried along behind her.

"Why… why are you doing this?" the young girl asked.

The monster came to a stop again.

"Every human that falls down here meets the same fate," Toriel solemnly explained. "I have seen it again and again."

Her expression darkened.

"They come. They leave. _They die."_

Frisk failed to come up with a response. The idea that she could potentially die out there… she really didn't want to think about it.

"You naive child…" Toriel said, with a hint of fear in her voice. "If you leave the ruins… they…no, _Asgore_ … he will kill you."

Asgore… Frisk wondered who that was. The monster had said that name like Asgore was an old friend, but something suggested that they weren't on friendly terms anymore.

"I am only protecting you, do you understand? Please… go to your room."

As Toriel turned around and began to walk again, Frisk hesitated to catch up.

For a moment, she contemplated the options that was presented to her. She could live a peaceful, but boring life with Toriel… or she could risk her life by leaving it behind, in order to reach the rest of the underground and hopefully return to the surface.

Something stirred deep inside of her. As much as she enjoyed being with Toriel, she didn't really belong here for the rest of her life. There was a world out there to explore, wasn't there?

Frisk dashed ahead, approaching the monster once again. Yet, Toriel continued on.

"Do not try to stop me. This is your final warning."

The monster turned around the corner, soon reaching the passageway's end. A massive door stood there, towering over even Toriel herself. Slowly, she turned around, silently hoping that she would be greeted with an empty sight.

But to her dismay, the girl was still there.

"You want to leave so badly?" Toriel said, disappointment present in her voice. "Hmph. You are just like the others."

She let out a sigh, filled with sorrow. "There is only one solution to this."

Magical energy flared up within the monster. It had been such a long time since she had last used her fire magic for combat.

A box containing Frisk's soul suddenly appeared in front of Toriel, startling the child. She stumbled backwards, her eyes widening in shock.

"Prove yourself, Frisk…" Toriel commanded.

Magical energy permeated the air, raising the temperature of the room. A sense of dread washed over the child, as she felt the radiating heat brush past her face.

"Prove to me you are strong enough to survive!"

* * *

 _(Let us begin.)_

* * *

Firmly, Toriel blocked the way, her posture becoming more rigid. She stood there, waiting for Frisk to act.

The child's breath grew quick and less restrained. She wanted to try to talk Toriel out of this fight, but… she was unable to think of any good conversation topics.

She asked a question instead. "Why do we have to fight, mom?"

Toriel did not reply.

Fireballs began to drop down over Frisk's soul, swerving left and right as they fell. As one of the fireballs hit its target, a burst of pain coursed through the child.

"Oww…" she winced, stumbling for a moment. "Mom, stop it!"

But even to this, Toriel's somber facial expression did not change.

The attack ended as the fireballs disappeared, but Frisk did not know what to do. She didn't want to hurt Toriel, but it didn't seem that the monster would listen to her. Running away wasn't the right thing to do either, as Toriel would otherwise close the ruins forever.

So what was there to do?

The child clutched at her head. There _had_ to be a solution!

Toriel unleashed a complex stream of fireballs within the box. However, there was a large gap in the middle of the box where fire did not fall. By moving there, Frisk's soul was able to avoid damage this time.

After the attack ended, Toriel began to grow confused. She continued to stare right through the child, fueled by her responsibility.

"What are you doing?" the monster asked. "Attack or run away!"

"If I ran," Frisk reasoned, "you would prevent me from seeing the world beyond the ruins. But if I… if I attacked, I would be hurting you… "

Right then and there, the child realized that there was nothing that she _could_ do. She refused to give up, however.

Toriel remained silent, using another magical attack.

A white hand moved across the top side of the box, leaving fireballs behind. Once the hand disappeared, the fireballs flew in a straight trajectory towards the soul.

Frisk didn't expect them to bounce off the side of the box… but they did, and her soul took another blow. Even after that, she continued to stand there.

Toriel took a deep breath before asking another question. "What are you proving this way?"

Frisk's gaze turned down to the floor.

"You taught me that I don't need to fight to solve problems in the Underground…" the child stated. It was true, wasn't it?

Another round of fireballs fell from the top of the box. With it, more pain was inflicted.

"Fight me or leave!" the monster commanded, on the verge of raising her voice.

Still, the child still wished to do neither. Steadily, she found the courage to lift her head and stare at Toriel, determination flowing through her.

Toriel continued to attack, finding that the child still refused to move.

"Please, Frisk, stop this," she begged. "This is for your own good…"

Frisk merely shook her head.

Another attack. More damage dealt.

Toriel looked down at the child. Her teeth were tightly clenched, and her eyes… her eyes were filled with a vast spectrum of emotions.

Fear, helplessness, anger, sorrow… those words would be barely scratching the surface. But there was one emotion in particular that clearly outshone the others: heartache. It burned so brightly, so much that it was unbearable to watch any further.

Regretfully, the monster's gaze turned to the wall besides her.

"Stop looking at me that way," she admonished, taking a step backwards towards the door.

Frisk's soul was struck with yet another fireball.

Her legs buckled underneath her weight. With a shout, Frisk fell down to her knees, clutching at herself in unbearable pain.

 _"Mom!"_ she cried, eyes shut tight. "Stop it! I don't want to fight you!"

"Then go away!" Toriel pleaded, still unable to directly look at the girl.

Another long trail of fireballs fell into the box, heading for the child's soul. As it was nicked by the flames, the attack immediately ended, the fireballs disappearing.

The child shivered violently, tears spilling down her face. However, a feeling inside of her persisted… she couldn't give up.

Gritting her teeth, she stared up at Toriel. She wanted to stand back up… but could not muster the energy to do so.

There was nothing that Frisk could do. She felt helpless.

Letting out a sob, she sat on the ground and buried her face in her hands, waiting for Toriel to begin her next attack.

Fireballs began to fall from the top of the box.

After seconds passed, Frisk realized that she was not being hurt at all.

Cautiously, the child uncovered her eyes… and she saw that the flames were actively avoiding her soul. If any fireball would get close to it, it would be deflected by an invisible force and fly off in the other direction.

Despite Toriel's insistence on fighting, she could not have the intention to place Frisk in serious danger.

"Mom…" Frisk quietly said, voice filled with gratitude. "Thank you…"

She noticed that Toriel had closed her eyes, as if she was recalling something…

* * *

In a place far, far away from the ruins…

Toriel approached a door leading to a child's room. Softly, she knocked.

"May I come in?"

A child's voice came from inside. "Go ahead."

Gently, Toriel placed her hand on the door knob. She opened the door slowly, walking inside, and closed it behind her.

Upon one of the two beds in the room sat a human girl. Dark brown hair hung in front of her face. Her face conveyed it clearly: she had been crying.

Toriel sat down next to her.

"What is wrong, my child?" she asked. "Oh, I know… you are still sad that you cannot return to the surface, are you not?"

The child looked up and nodded, letting out a sob. She had only found out a short while ago.

"Do not worry," Toriel stated, placing an arm around the human's shoulder. "Our family will take care of you as best as we can. This is your home now."

The monster enveloped the girl in a warm hug.

"How about a slice of pie?" she offered. "That will make you feel better."

In response, the human wrapped her arms around Toriel.

"Thank you… Mom…"

* * *

 _(That is enough. Please end the music here.)_

* * *

At last, Toriel's resolve broke. Gradually, the energy behind her fire magic began to dissipate, until it fully faded out.

The monster brought herself to look into the child's eyes. "I know you want to go home, but… please, go upstairs now."

"I don't want to," Frisk croaked.

Toriel began to plead with her. "I promise I will take good care of you here. I know we do not have much, but—"

"You already have taken good care of me," the child interrupted.

"Then why do you want to leave?"

The child wiped a tear from her eye. "It's… it's not your fault. I'm happy here… but I can't stay here forever."

Toriel put on a look of despair.

"Why are you making this so difficult?" she asked. "Please, go upstairs."

"I don't want to," Frisk repeated.

The monster was silent for a moment.

"Ha ha… pathetic, is it not?" she said, wearing a smile of self-pity. "I cannot save even a single child."

"You saved me," the girl stated, looking up.

"Hmm?" Toriel was a little confused.

"You saved me from that flower," Frisk explained. "Thank you."

For a moment, the two of them stared in silence at each other.

Frisk spoke up. "I'm sorry, mom, but I have to go. Please."

The monster looked off to the side, her shoulders slouching. A long sigh spilled out from her mouth.

"I understand," Toriel stated. "You would just be unhappy trapped down there. The ruins are very small once you get used to them. It would not be right for you to grow up in a place like this."

In front of Toriel, the box completely disappeared. She walked forward, in order to approach the child.

"My expectations... my loneliness... my fear…"

She knelt down, wrapping her arms around Frisk. Swiftly, the pain in the child's body went away, as she was buried in Toriel's embrace.

The monster smiled. "For you, my child… I will put them aside."

They stayed this way for another minute or so… but eventually, Toriel let go and stood back up.

"If you truly wish leave the ruins… I will not stop you," she said softly.

The monster's eyes looked off into the distance. "However, when you leave… Please do not come back. I hope you understand."

She turned back to Frisk, who was struggling to get back up to her feet, and noticed that the child was exhausted: physically, mentally, emotionally.

"Maybe this is not a good time for you to leave the ruins," Toriel noted. "You should take a rest."

Frisk nodded her head, her eyelids beginning to droop. Toriel took her by the hand down the passageway until the child's movements slowed down to a crawl.

Carefully, Toriel picked up the drowsy child's body. With it, she walked all the way back to Frisk's room, wearing a bittersweet smile the whole way.

* * *

A few hours later, Frisk woke up in her bed.

She looked up and saw that Toriel was waiting for her. Close to her, the closet was wide open.

"Greetings, Frisk," Toriel greeted. "I just remembered something. I do not want you to be too cold out there, so I picked out some clothes for you to wear."

Toriel gestured to the neatly-folded clothes sitting on the floor. "Here, try these on for size."

The child rose from her bed and approached the clothing. She discerned that they were a heavy jacket and a pair of trousers.

She put them on, sliding them over her current outfit, finding that they were incredibly comfy. Until now, she had never thought about wearing something different in the underground, since she was used to wearing the same outfit for days on end. It was a habit that was hard to break.

"Do you want to take a look for yourself?" Toriel offered, gesturing to the closet. "There might be something that you may want to wear."

As Frisk took another look, she found that there was something that had missed her attention before. There was a dress that looked like Toriel's, but it was child-sized: it had the same white sleeves and dark blue body, and even contained the same insignia.

She pointed to it. Toriel seemed to be a little surprised that it was there in the first place.

"That one? Nobody has worn that dress for a long time."

Frisk found it intriguing that anyone had worn the dress at all. It didn't look old enough for Toriel to have worn it when she was younger.

Maybe Toriel had kids? If so, where were they now?

"Well, can I take it with me?" Frisk asked. "It reminds me of you!"

For a moment, Toriel thought about it.

"I want you to be happy," she eventually said. "If having that dress makes you happy… then by all means, take it with you."

* * *

Together, they entered the room containing the stairway to the basement.

"It is time to say goodbye," Toriel said. Something wrapped in aluminum foil sat in her hand. "Here is one last gift."

Frisk unwrapped a little by the edge, seeing that it was a slice of pie. After taking a whiff, she found that it was butterscotch cinnamon pie, probably an extra slice from that pie made when she first fell into the Underground.

"Thanks, mom!" Frisk resealed the pie and placed it in her backpack. She was unlikely to eat it soon, though, as it was being saved for a rainier day.

Toriel knelt down to the child's level, having some information to tell. "You may be stronger than I thought, but… listen to me."

Curiously, Frisk looked into the monster's eyes.

"When you go beyond this door at the ruin's end… keep walking as far as you can," Toriel stated. "Eventually, you will reach an exit."

Her expression grew more worrisome.

"By all means…" she continued, "Asgore… do not let Asgore take your soul. His plan cannot be allowed to succeed. Do you understand?"

Cheerfully, the child nodded.

And for a moment, the goat monster would have hope.

* * *

They entered the basement. walking to the hallway's end, until they stood in front of the huge door.

The monster gave Frisk one final hug. "Goodbye, my child. Be good, alright?"

Standing back up, she reached over to a switch to the side. Slowly, the door began to pull itself open.

Frisk took a few steps forward, stepping through the doorway. She turned back around, taking one last look.

"Goodbye, mom," the child said.

The door began to close again, but only when it shut at last did Frisk turn back around. The child stared off into the distance, taking a deep breath. There was no turning back now.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, she headed straight forward.

* * *

Frisk walked down a very long, narrow passageway by herself.

She wasn't afraid. She was a little excited about what lay in her future, but a little sad, too, as she had lost a very good friend. Still, she was determined to carry on.

At the passageway's end was an entrance to a room. As a precaution, Frisk reached into her bag, pulled out the stick, and held it tightly in her hand.

She walked in, seeing that the room contained very little… but what it contained was startling. It was Flowey, the very last person she wanted to see in the Underground right now.

Immediately, the child tensed up. She raised her stick in self-defense— after all, Toriel wouldn't be around to save her now.

"Clever." Flowey remarked. "Verrrryyy clever. You think you're really smart, don't you?"

Frisk kept her eyes on the flower, a grim expression on her face.

"I thought I told you already," he continued, still wearing a sweet smile. "In this world, it's kill or be killed."

The smile was dropped, in favor of a more disturbing expression.

"So, you were able to play by your own rules. You spared the life of a single person… even when you had a weapon to tempt you."

The child managed to put two and two together.

"So you're the one who kept moving the knife back," she stated. "If you do anything funny, you… might regret that."

She had said that just so she could feel better about the situation— in reality, she never wanted to use it.

"Hmm?" Flowey noted. "Toriel's life was worth sparing when she tried to kill you, but mine's not?"

"Well, I don't think she really wanted to kill me… " Frisk shakily replied, looking down at her shoes.

Upon recalling who she was talking with, her head shot back up. "Anyways, back to what you were saying?"

The flower continued, despite his confusion at Frisk's insistence of changing the subject.

"I bet you feel really great. You haven't killed anyone. Well, not yet. But what will you do if you meet a relentless killer?"

He deliberately elaborated. "You'll die and you'll die and you'll die, until you tire of trying. What will you do then?"

"You're saying I can die more than once…" Frisk remarked, a little terrified by what the flower was saying. "What are you talking about?"

Flowey chuckled.

"You haven't figured it out yet, huh? The power to reshape the world, purely by your own determination. The ability to play 'God'! The ability to 'save.'"

The flower shook his head.

"I thought I was the only one with that power, but I can't save anymore. Apparently _your_ desires for this world override _mine._ "

He realized that he was getting off-track, maybe revealing too much.

"…Anyways, about this killer… will you kill out of frustration?" Flowey inquired, a mischievous grin on his face. "Or will you give up entirely on this world… and let _me_ inherit the power to control it? I am the prince—"

"Look…" Frisk interrupted. "If you want to kill me, why haven't you… um, killed me yet?"

Flowey looked at her with a malicious expression on his face. "Kill you? That's all water under the bridge. Don't worry, my little monarch, my plan isn't regicide."

Monarch? Regicide? Whatever those words meant, they sent a shiver down the child's back.

Flowey's facial expression changed into a huge, wicked smile. "This is _so_ much more interesting."

He let out a loud, piercing cackle. As it rung through the air, Frisk clapped her hands over her ears.

Promptly, Flowey retreated into the ground.

The child stepped over the place where Flowey had stood in order to reach the door in the back of the room. She gave it a hard shove, and it opened forth, a blast of cold air flying in.

Whatever lay ahead, Frisk was determined to face it head-on.

* * *

 **UNDERTALE**

 **By Toby Fox**

* * *

 **AN:**

 **So, this chapter. It was fun to write, but it was hard to get it to feel right.**

 **To prepare for this chapter, I listened to Heartache. A lot. For any aspiring fanfiction writers out there, listening to music really helps.**

 **Many players of Undertale won't have seen some of the dialogue pulled directly from the game that I'll use in this story. You might notice the beginning of that, if you're rather observant.**

 **Next time: skeletons. You know the ones.**


	5. Nyeh Heh Heh!

As she went through the door, Frisk found out why Toriel had insisted on giving her warmer clothes. The floor was covered in snow, despite being underground.

The child took a deep breath. As she exhaled, she noticed that she exhaled a white mist into the air.

Winter was not her favorite season, but it was the one that she found the most hilarious. Throwing snowballs at other people… slipping around on ice… throwing more snowballs at other people… there were so many fond memories.

One time, some of the orphans pressured this one kid to stand outside without his coat. He ended up catching a cold, but still, it was kinda funny.

She tested the snow beneath her feet, finding that it was the hard, crunchy kind. It was the kind that would have gotten Frisk in trouble if she made snowballs from them and threw them at people.

Basically, it was the best kind of snow to use for snowballs. But she didn't want to get her hands cold, as they usually did when she formed snowballs with her bare hands, so she refrained from doing so.

Frisk pulled her view away from the ground and to her surroundings.

The cavern's ceiling was far beyond her sight. There was a single path forwards, passing through a forest of tall, dark leafless trees.

Not much else to do but to follow it.

* * *

The walk down the path began uneventfully. Thankfully, since Frisk was well-dressed for cold temperatures, she was not hindered by them.

Howling drafts blew through the trees around her. She felt uneasy all of a sudden, her fingers beginning to fidget around the stick in her hand.

She glanced around, catching something out of the corner of her eye. She might have been imagining it, but… she saw a shaded figure moving between the trees.

Frisk was unable to shake the feeling that she was being followed by someone. She stopped in her tracks, taking another look of her surroundings, but she didn't notice anything else.

The child shrugged and trudged on forward.

In her way, Frisk found a huge branch on the ground. She crouched down and tried to pick it up, but she found that it was too heavy for her to lift. She hopped over the branch and continued walking.

She was startled by a loud crack from right behind her. She quickly turned around, but there was nobody there. The branch behind her had been snapped into multiple pieces.

Now she really felt that she was being followed. And messed around with, likely.

Frisk tightened the grip on her stick and continued walking.

She reached a bridge, with a gate situated in the middle of it.

The child would likely have been able to squeeze through the gaps between the bars, but for a moment… apprehension clouded her judgement. Getting stuck between the bars wouldn't be great, especially with the feeling of someone following her.

Plus, it would be pretty awkward…

Before Frisk could decide to go through, she heard the sound of crunching snow right behind her.

Uh oh.

The crunching slowly came to a stop. The child felt the presence of someone _right behind_ her.

 _"Human,"_ came a slowly articulated voice.

Her curiosity was overwhelmed by apprehension and fear, so the child didn't dare to turn around.

 _"Don't you know how to greet a new pal?"_ the voice continued.

"Tell me…" Frisk cautiously replied, trying to summon her courage. "How do you greet a 'new pal'?"

 _"Turn around and shake my hand."_

The child slowly turned around, despite common sense dictating that she probably shouldn't.

A darkened figure stood, extending its hand out. She hesitated to raise her hand up to meet it, but the stranger continued to stand there, so…

Her eyes shut tight as Frisk met her hand with the stranger's—

A deafening noise erupted from the stranger's hand. It sounded like… somebody farted?

She opened her eyes, and was able to get a clearer view of the person in front of her.

It had a bone-white head, empty eyes with small white pupils, and a constant grin on its face. It wore a blue jacket with a white shirt under it, black baggy shorts, and a pair of slippers on its feet. It was taller than she was… but barely.

She realized that the person didn't have any skin. It was a skeleton.

"heheh... the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick," the stranger said, without moving its smiling mouth. "it's _always_ funny."

The skeleton shifted its eyes to look at her face. "anyways, you're a human, right? that's hilarious."

Hilarious? That was an interesting choice of words.

"i'm sans," he greeted. "sans the skeleton. what's your name?"

The child was relieved, since the skeleton seemed friendly enough.

"My name's Frisk!" she greeted back. "It's nice to meet you!"

"frisk? that's cool," the skeleton replied. "i'm actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now. it's part of sentry duty and all…"

Sans shrugged. "but... y'know… i don't really care about capturing anybody."

He held up a finger. The child noted that there were gloves over his hands, usually not shown since he usually placed his hands in the pockets of his jacket.

"now my brother, papyrus…" he said, "he's a human-hunting fanatic."

The skeleton had said the word "fanatic" in a silly, yet not sarcastic sort of way. So… Frisk wasn't really sure what to think of him.

He pointed at something beyond the gate. "hey, actually, I think that's him over there."

Frisk turned around, noticing the tall figure standing around in the distance.

"Should… I be worried?" she asked. She honestly wasn't sure, since she had no idea what was correct and what wasn't.

Sans thought for a second. "perhaps. it's a good thing i have an idea. go through this gate thingy.

The child glanced over to the gate.

"yeah, go on through," the skeleton stated. "my bro made the bars too wide to stop anyone."

Frisk found that Sans was right; she didn't get stuck. She crossed the bridge with Sans following right behind her.

The path continued past the bridge, but Sans gestured to something off to the side. "quick, behind that conveniently-shaped lamp."

The lamp was indeed "conveniently-shaped". Not only was it Frisk's height, but the lampshade was shaped similarly to her hair so that if she stood next to it, she would be mostly hidden. Sure, it made little sense… but Frisk knew not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

As she stood there, she noticed who was apparently "Papyrus", a much taller skeleton. The most notable thing he wore was a large, white rounded chestpiece, resembling a plate of armor. His limb bones were covered with a tight black fabric, and a pair of tall, red boots were on his feet.

"sup, bro?" Sans greeted.

"YOU KNOW WHAT "SUP," BROTHER!" Papyrus stated in a loud, comical voice. "IT'S BEEN EIGHT DAYS AND YOU STILL HAVEN'T RECALIBRATED YOUR PUZZLES!"

Papyrus gestured to the nearby stand. It had a few bottles of condiments next to it. "YOU JUST HANG AROUND OUTSIDE YOUR STATION! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING, ANYWAYS?"

Sans pointed at the conveniently shaped lamp. "i've been staring at that lamp. it's really cool. do you wanna look?"

If Sans was suggesting to Papyrus where the child was, maybe Papyrus wasn't really threatening as Frisk had thought.

"NO!" Papyrus began furiously stomping the ground. With every strike of the earth, his bones rattled. "I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THAT! WHAT IF A HUMAN COMES THROUGH HERE!? I WANT TO BE READY!"

"I WILL BE THE ONE! I MUST BE THE ONE!" Papyrus pulled off a dramatic pose, the small cape around his neck rippling in the breeze. "I WILL CAPTURE A HUMAN! THEN, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL GET ALL THE THINGS I UTTERLY DESERVE!"

"RESPECT... RECOGNITION… I WILL FINALLY BE ABLE TO JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD!" he shouted.

"PEOPLE WILL FINALLY ASK TO… BE MY… 'FRIEND?' I WILL BATHE IN A SHOWER OF KISSES EVERY MORNING! EVERYONE'S GOING TO KNOW HOW GREAT I AM!"

Meanwhile, Sans pretended to ponder over something. "hmm… maybe this lamp will help you."

Papyrus stopped ranting and looked at his brother. He furiously pointed a finger at the lamp. "SANS! UNLESS THAT LAMP CONTAINS A HUMAN, YOU ARE NOT HELPING! YOU LAZY BONES!"

Papyrus looked at the lamp a second time, bringing his hand up to his chin. His expression changed to one of suspicion. "WAIT… DOES IT REALLY CONTAIN A HUMAN?"

"why don't you take a look?" Sans asked. "i have no idea, _tibia_ honest."

"OKAY-" Papyrus started. He then realized that Sans had just told a skeleton pun.

 _"SANS! I THOUGHT WE'VE BEEN OVER THIS!"_

The shorter skeleton winked. "come on. admit it, papyrus, you're smiling."

"I AM AND I HATE IT!"

The shorter skeleton shrugged. "hey, wasn't that at least a bit… _humerus?_ i bet you don't have the _guts_ to admit it."

Papyrus let out a cry of disgust at Sans's double dose of bad jokes. From behind the lamp, Frisk placed a hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter.

"I WILL ATTEND TO MY PUZZLES… BUT IF YOU DON'T GET TO YOUR WORK, I'LL HAVE A BONE TO PICK WITH YOU! NYEH HEH HEH!"

With that, Papyrus ran off.

"ok, you can come out now," Sans beckoned, once the other skeleton had left the scene. "that worked out, huh?"

Frisk got out from behind the lamp, wearing a smile on her face.

"you oughta get going," Sans advised. "he might come back. and if he does, you'll have to sit through more of my hilarious jokes."

As the child was about to leave, Sans spoke up again.

"actually, hey… hate to bother ya, but can you do me a favor?

She turned around and looked back at the skeleton.

"i was thinking, my brother's been kinda down lately. he's never seen a human before, and seeing you might just make his day."

Frisk pondered over it. She was still a little nervous about meeting Papyrus.

"Hmm… is he dangerous?" she asked. "I mean, being captured doesn't sound like a lot of fun…"

Sans glanced off into the distance to where Papyrus was excitedly running, then back to Frisk. "don't worry, he's not… even if he tries to be."

It was worth a shot, at the very least.

"I'll play along," Frisk stated in agreement. "He can't be too bad."

"thanks a million." the skeleton replied. "i'll be up ahead."

* * *

The path continued on, passing through a forest of short pine trees.

Frisk found a box along the path. The sign next to it told her a few things: that she was free to place items into the box, and that the box would show up later, if she needed something.

The child immediately placed the toy knife into the box, as it was something that she felt uneasy carrying in her bag.

She noticed that there was something already within the box, though. She went ahead and picked it up.

It was a pink, leather glove. When the child tried it on, she found that it fit on her right hand.

Frisk wiggled the fingers on her gloved hand, and felt the urge to punch something with it.

She walked up to a tree. After meeting her knuckles with the trunk and retracting her hand, she thrust her fist forward. Of course, the child didn't have enough physical strength to do much to the tree, but she found that the glove helped to cushion her hand. Comfy.

Frisk had also decided to put Toriel's pie into the box as well, as she was worried that someone would steal it from off her person.

And with that, the child walked back onto the path, when out of nowhere, a light-blue bird-like creature bumped into her. As usual with monster encounters, Frisk was engaged in a battle.

"D-do you know what I had for dinner in Snowdin last night?" the monster immediately asked. "I had macaroni and _freeze!"_

Frisk snickered. She enjoyed silly puns, as she had fond memories of reading and reciting from joke books back on the surface.

The monster began to mutter to itself. "See? Laughs! Dad was wrong!"

Crescent-shaped projectiles flew in straight lines within the battle box. Frisk moved her soul to dodge them.

"Hey!" Snowdrake called, after finishing its attack. "Thanks, kid! What's your name?"

"I'm Frisk," she greeted. "That joke was _cool!_ "

Snowdrake was overjoyed by finding another pun enthusiast. "Yeah! Ice puns are _snow_ problem for me!"

The two of them shared a laugh together.

"We should just _chill_ with the fighting, y'know?" Snowdrake stated, causing the battle box to disappear.

"By the way, I'm Snowdrake, but my friends just call me Snowy. N- _ice_ meeting ya!"

Frisk waved goodbye. "Good luck with your jokes!"

And so they walked off into different directions.

* * *

Frisk noted that on the path, Sans and Papyrus were having a conversation. Well, it was mostly Papyrus who was talking, while Sans was being the polite listener.

"SO, AS I WAS SAYING ABOUT UNDYNE..." Papyrus began.

Sans and Papyrus noticed that the human had just walked in on the conversation. They swiftly turned back and forth between each other and the human. This went on for a while until they were practically spinning.

Sans and Papyrus stopped turning and faced away from the child.

"SANS!" Papyrus cried. "OH MY GOD! IS THAT A HUMAN!?"

The skeletons turned around. Sans pointed to a stone located behind Frisk. Strangely, it wasn't there before.

"uhh…" Sans said, "actually, i think that's a rock."

Papyrus looked a little disappointed. "OH."

"hey, what's that in front of the rock?"

Papyrus looked and noticed Frisk. _"OH MY GOD!_ "

He faced Sans, an expression of amazement on his face.

"IS… IS THAT A HUMAN?" he whispered. He tried to, at least.

"well, it's not a rock. so yes."

The skeletons turned back to the human. Papyrus had put on an expression of glee. "OH MY GOD! SANS! I FINALLY DID IT!"

Papyrus began to stammer. "UNDYNE WILL… I'M GONNA… I'LL BE SO… POPULAR!"

It took of all Frisk's ability to not erupt into laughter. She found Papyrus absolutely hilarious!

The taller skeleton soon regained his composure.

"HUMAN! YOU SHALL NOT PASS THIS AREA!" he declared. "I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL STOP YOU! I WILL THEN CAPTURE YOU! YOU WILL BE DELIVERED TO THE CAPITAL! THEN… "

Papyrus's act faltered. "I'M NOT SURE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT."

The skeleton looked to Sans. "ANY IDEAS, SANS?"

"nope, me neither."

Papyrus's attention turned back to Frisk. "IN ANY CASE! PREPARE YOURSELF! FOR HIGH JINKS! FOR LOW JINKS!"

The tall skeleton placed his hands on his hips, continuing his speech. "DANGERS! PUZZLES! CAPERS! JAPERS! BEING CAPTURED! AND OTHER SORTS OF FUN ACTIVITIES."

Papyrus gracefully gestured to the path ahead. "CONTINUE, ONLY IF YOU DARE!"

With that, Papyrus loudly laughed and walked off into the distance.

"well, that went well," Sans commented.

Frisk happily nodded. Papyrus reminded her of some of the kids back at the orphanage. Already, she was beginning to warm up to him.

Sans turned to her. "don't sweat it, kid. i'll keep an eye socket out for ya."

* * *

Frisk looked ahead and noticed a sentry station. A sign near it read: _"Absolutely no moving!_ "

The child moved closer to the station anyways, since she thought that it was empty.

She froze in place as she noticed a head popping up from the station. It appeared to be a dog with a horrible sense of fashion. It was shifting its eyes around, looking for something.

"Did something move?" the dog asked. "Was it my imagination? I, Doggo, can only see moving things."

That meant Frisk wasn't noticed yet. Good!

Doggo pulled out a pair of swords. "If something _was_ moving… for example, a human… I'll make sure it never moves again!"

Not so good.

And then the battle box opened. Somehow.

Frisk remained in place, letting the dog attack if it could.

"Don't move an inch!" the dog commanded. A blue-colored sword the length of the box's height started sliding towards Frisk's soul.

It didn't seem that there was a way to avoid the attack… but what if she didn't move her soul?

Frisk watched on as the blade passed harmlessly through the stationary soul. She found that strange… was it because the attack was blue?

Doggo couldn't seem to find anything, so it began to relax a little. Frisk took the opportunity to pet it on the head while it was looking away. She knew that dogs loved to be pet, recalling the time when a kind stranger brought a dog one day to the orphanage, and he let the kids pet it.

 _"WHAT! I'VE BEEN PET!"_ Doggo barked. The dog began to wildly freak out, looking for the thing that had touched it. Frisk froze right after she pet it, so she remained unnoticed.

Doggo attacked again, the same blue blade sliding in. As before, Frisk's soul was able to avoid the attack by standing still.

The dog continued to bark during its attack. _"POT? PET? PAT? PET?"_

After the attack ended, Doggo calmed down, but he seemed to be traumatized by the event.

"S-S-S-Something pet me... Something that isn't m-m-moving… I'm gonna need some dog treats for this!"

He ducked back into his station as the battle box disappeared.

The child walked past the station. She noticed that there were a few dog treats on the ground nearby, but they had been charred on one end.

Someone had been smoking dog treats.

* * *

Continuing down the path, Frisk noticed Sans up ahead.

"hey, you seem to be confused about something," he noticed, turning to her. "what's up?"

The child had been unable to stop thinking about Doggo's attack, since it had passed so harmlessly through her soul.

"This one monster used an attack," Frisk stated, "but it didn't hurt me at all."

"oh, i know what happened. that monster used a blue attack."

Frisk cocked her head in curiosity.

"if you see a blue attack, don't move and it won't hurt you," the skeleton explained. "in fact, my brother has an attack just like it."

Oh, that made sense.

"here's an easy way to keep it in mind," he continued. "imagine a stop sign. when you see a stop sign, you stop, right? stop signs are red. so imagine a blue stop sign instead."

Frisk recalled what a stop sign looked like. Of course, she never paid much attention to them on the surface, due to her aversion to vehicles.

"simple, right?" Sans said. "when fighting, think about blue stop signs."

"Thanks, Sans," Frisk replied. "I'll keep that in mind."

Dying wasn't in her best interest, after all.

* * *

Soon afterward, a bipedal, armored dog with a sword and shield had run up to Frisk, engaging in battle. Its tail wagged excitedly, desiring affection from the stranger that it had approached.

Like the previous dog she had met, Frisk pat it on the head. Well, she would have, if the dog hadn't reacted to the slightest movement of her hand as she rose it.

The dog panted eagerly, starting an attack. A dog appearing in the battle box leaped towards her soul in an attempt to hit it.

After the attack ended, Frisk lightly tapped on the dog's head. The dog was getting so excited, its neck began to grow a little.

The child began to wonder what would happen if she continued to pet it.

* * *

Frisk regretted nothing.

The dog's neck was getting so long, that she could hardly make out the dog's head anymore. Yet… it showed no signs of stopping.

There was no way to stop this madness. It was possible that it might have been having a problem.

Well, the dog couldn't really battle her effectively now; it had stopped attacking after Frisk pet it a few times.

So she waved goodbye to the dog and left.

* * *

She noticed that the path had an offshoot. Taking that offshoot led to a solitary snowman.

It looked friendly, and even if it wanted to kill her it didn't look like it could chase her. So Frisk approached it.

"Hello," the snowman greeted. I am a snowman. I want to see the world... But I cannot move. If you would be so kind, traveller, please… Take a piece of me and bring it very far away."

"So like this?" the girl asked, as she tore off a chunk from the snowman's side.

"That'll do," the snowman said.

"Won't this melt?" Frisk asked.

"I … don't think so?" the snowman remarked. "It's magic, I think."

Before she said goodbye, Frisk picked up some snow from the ground and restored the chunk that she took off.

"Thank you..." the snowman thanked. "Good luck on your journey!"

* * *

As the pine tree forest ended, the path ended soon after.

She saw Sans and Papyrus from a distance. They looked like they had something planned, but at the moment they were just having another conversation.

"YOU'RE SO LAZY!" Papyrus complained to Sans. "YOU WERE NAPPING ALL NIGHT!"

"uh, i think that's called… sleeping," Sans replied.

"EXCUSES, EXCUSES!"

The skeletons noticed that Frisk was present.

"OH-HO!" Papyrus yelled. "THE HUMAN ARRIVES! IN ORDER TO STOP YOU, MY BROTHER AND I HAVE CREATED SOME PUZZLES!"

"I THINK YOU WILL FIND THIS ONE QUITE SHOCKING!"

Papyrus cringed as that last part left his mouth.

"FOR YOU SEE, THIS IS THE INVISIBLE ELECTRICITY MAZE!" Papyrus gestured to the empty space between Frisk and the skeletons with one hand and pulled out a blue orb with the other. "WHEN YOU TOUCH THE WALLS OF THIS MAZE, THIS ORB WILL ADMINISTER A HEARTY ZAP!"

"SOUND LIKE FUN?" Papyrus taunted. "BECAUSE THE AMOUNT OF FUN YOU WILL PROBABLY HAVE… IS ACTUALLY RATHER SMALL, I THINK."

The child frowned. This didn't seem fun at all.

"OK, YOU CAN GO AHEAD NOW," Papyrus cheerfully noted.

Frisk observed the field in front of her… but she couldn't see anything that marked any boundaries. She grit her teeth and found the resolve to take a step forward.

Immediately, the orb in Papyrus's hand violently reacted. Electricity coursed down his bones, causing Papyrus to scream in pain.

Frisk cringed. She was just glad she wasn't on the receiving end.

Papyrus shook off the resulting soot and began stomping in place. " _SANS!_ WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

"i think the human has to hold the orb," Sans suggested, pointing to the object in Papyrus's hand.

The taller skeleton glanced down at it. "OH, OKAY."

Papyrus took a winding path through the field to avoid getting zapped again.

"HOLD THIS, PLEASE!"

Papyrus tossed the orb into the air, allowing Frisk to catch it in her hands. He then took the winding path again on the way back to the other side, careful not to accidentally hurt the child.

"OKAY, TRY NOW!"

Frisk looked at the field between her and the other side, cupping the orb in her hands. She grinned to herself, noticing that Papyrus had left some rather obvious tracks in the snow.

Hey, maybe this wasn't going to be so bad.

By carefully following this path, Frisk managed to get through the maze without being zapped.

"INCREDIBLE!" Papyrus commented, with an expression of shock. "YOU SLIPPERY SNAIL! YOU SOLVED IT SO EASILY... TOO EASILY!"

It took all of Frisk's willpower to not burst out in laughter at the moment. It was getting really difficult.

"HOWEVER, THE NEXT PUZZLE WILL NOT BE EASY!" the skeleton declared. "IT IS DESIGNED BY MY BROTHER, SANS!"

Frisk wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

"YOU WILL SURELY BE CONFOUNDED! I KNOW I AM! NYEH HEH HEH!"

And with that, Papyrus ran off to the next puzzle.

"hey, thanks." Sans said. "my brother seems like he's having fun."

"I'm having fun, too," Frisk replied. "By the way, what is he wearing?"

"oh, that? we made that a few weeks ago for a costume party, and he hasn't worn anything else since. keeps calling it his 'battle body.'"

Sans looked off into the distance. "man, isn't my brother cool?"

"He's dedicated," Frisk commented. "I can give him that."

* * *

As the child continued to traverse through the snow, she noticed a vendor cart. Next to it stood a tall, blue rabbit with a brightly colored outfit.

"I don't understand why these are selling… " the rabbit griped. "It's the perfect weather for something cold… "

As Frisk approached him, he perked up. "Oh! A customer!"

"Hello!" he greeted, his ears held high in the air. "Would you like some Nice Cream? It's the frozen treat that warms your heart! Now just 15G!"

Frisk had recalled having ice cream a few times on the surface, usually during the summer. She could understand why nobody would want to have ice cream in a snowy place like this.

Still, she wouldn't say no to something sugary.

She pulled out thirty coins from her bag and held up two fingers. One for now, one for later.

The rabbit pulled out two frozen treats from his cart. "Here you go! Have a super-duper day!"

Frisk unwrapped one and placed the other in her bag. She glanced at the wrapper, seeing that it had the illustration of a hug on it.

Aww, that was real sweet… pun intended.

As she strolled around, consuming her Nice Cream at a leisurely rate, she noticed that there was a large snowball on the ground. Off in the distance, a hole was located in the ground.

The snowball was just begging to be kicked into the hole.

It turned out to be more difficult than she had initially expected. The snowball rolled across the ground with more velocity than she had expected, so it took a long time for the child to get the ball to where she wanted it to go. Still, she persisted.

Once the ball finally fell into the hole, a purple flag popped out of it. A note and a few coins were launched out as well.

The note read: "Purple: even when you felt trapped, you took notes and achieved the end of ball."

Another ball appeared at the beginning of the course, so Frisk decided to experiment to see if she could get other notes.

On her second try, she kicked the ball around as before, but she noticed that the ball was getting smaller over time when it was stationary. Once the ball was very small, she kicked it in.

An aqua-colored flag rose from the hole, along with a note and more coins.

"Light Blue: 'Ball' is 'small'. You waited, still, for this opportunity, then dethroned 'Ball' with sharp attack."

A bit more experimenting later, she received results that led to dark blue, green and yellow flags.

"Blue: Hopping and twirling, your original style pulled you through."

"Green: Your concern and care for 'Ball' led to a delicious victory."

"Yellow: Your surefire accuracy put an end to the mayhem of 'Ball'."

She decided to try a strategy that would get the ball into the hole faster. She guided the ball with many short, low-power kicks, just like dribbling in the soccer games she had observed on the surface. When she got the ball in, an orange flag popped up.

"Orange: You're the kind of person who rushes fists-first through all obstacles."

However, she felt that there was something missing… as if she hadn't truly won yet.

Dozens of tries later, after getting flags of various colors she had already, a red flag popped out as she kicked the ball into the hole. The equivalent of 50G shot out the hole, along with a longer note.

"Bravery. Justice. Integrity. Kindness. Perseverance. Patience. Using these, you were able to win at 'Ball Game.'"

Frisk put her hands on her knees and breathed heavily. She realized that for the first time in the underground, she was having a lot of fun. A bursting laugh of enjoyment was bubbling inside her, and she could not help but let it out.

She then just noticed that Sans had been watching the entire time.

The skeleton commented, grabbing her attention. "y'know, while you were playing, i noticed something within you. in fact… you sorta remind me of my brother."

"What do you mean?" the child asked, panting between words.

"just like how he's so dedicated to join the royal guard, you dedicated your time and energy to win the game."

The skeleton looked off into the distance. "i think you two would make great pals."

Although Papyrus was still trying to capture her, Frisk seemed to think so too.

"but for now… don't we have some puzzles to do?"

With that thought, Sans wandered off.

* * *

Sans and Papyrus greeted Frisk as she walked down a path along a tall cliff.

"HUMAN!" Papyrus said. "I HOPE YOU'RE READY FOR…"

The taller skeleton realized that there wasn't a puzzle present at the moment. "SANS! WHERE'S THE PUZZLE!"

"it's right there. on the ground." Sans stated, pointed to a piece of paper.

Frisk walked up to to the paper. It was a word search with a goofy character on it.

She shrugged and walked over it.

 _"SANS!"_ Papyrus yelled. _"THAT DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!"_

"whoops." Sans remarked, with a blank expression on his face. "i knew i should have used today's crossword instead."

"WHAT!?" The other skeleton was shocked. "CROSSWORD!? I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU SAID THAT! IN MY OPINION, JUNIOR JUMBLE IS EASILY THE HARDEST."

"what? that easy-peasy word scramble? that's for baby bones."

"UN. BELIEVABLE."

Papyrus pointed to Frisk. "HUMAN! SOLVE THIS DISPUTE!"

Frisk personally found crosswords to be a bit more challenging, as the hints provided were occasionally very vague, but she didn't want to disappoint Papyrus.

So she said Junior Jumble.

Papyrus's face brightened. "HAHA! HUMANS MUST BE VERY INTELLIGENT, IF THEY ALSO FIND JUNIOR JUMBLE SO DIFFICULT!"

He ran off, triumphantly laughing.

"thanks for saying 'junior jumble' just to appease my brother," Sans remarked. "yesterday he got stumped trying to "solve" the horoscope."

* * *

When the child moved on, she found a pair of tables standing out in the middle of nowhere. One table contained a plate of spaghetti on it, and the other had a microwave on top of it.

There was a note on the ground. Judging by the large, scratchy handwriting, she guessed that it was from Papyrus.

"HUMAN! PLEASE ENJOY THIS SPAGHETTI!"

"(LITTLE DO YOU KNOW, THIS SPAGHETTI IS A TRAP DESIGNED TO ENTICE YOU! YOU'LL BE SO BUSY EATING IT, THAT YOU WON'T REALIZE THAT YOU AREN'T PROGRESSING!)"

"(THOROUGHLY JAPED AGAIN BY THE GREAT PAPYRUS!)"

"—NYEH HEH HEH, PAPYRUS."

Unfortunately, the spaghetti had gotten cold and was stuck to the table, so Frisk could not properly enjoy Papyrus's spaghetti. What a shame.

* * *

A yellow flower popped up through the snow next to Papyrus. It turned and smiled at him.

"HEY!" Papyrus greeted. "IT'S MY TALKING FLOWER FRIEND!"

"You've met the human, right?" Flowey asked. "What do you think of her?"

"THE HUMAN IS A SHE?" Papyrus asked in surprise. "NOW THAT I THINK OF IT, I COULDN'T REALLY TELL."

Papyrus didn't know the difference, as he had never seen a human before.

"BUT ANYWAYS!" Papyrus continued, "SHE'S PRETTY COOL! I THINK SHE'S A FAN OF PUZZLES!"

"But she's a human, right?" the flower noted, the grin suddenly dropping from his face. "If you want to get into the Royal Guard, you'll need to capture her. Do you know what that means, Papyrus?"

"HMM… WHAT?"

"You're going to have to fight her," Flowey explained. "And… if my hunch is correct… you'll need to do a bit of practice. More specifically, you should practice restraining your magic attacks."

Papyrus didn't like where this conversation was going. "... HOW COME?"

"Tell me, Papyrus. How would you feel if you put her into serious harm?"

"UHH… NOT GOOD?" Papyrus guessed.

"She might not like you afterwards, you know." Flowey said. "She wouldn't want to be your 'cool friend'."

Papyrus began sweating, despite being a skeleton. "Y-YOU MAKE AN EXCELLENT POINT! WE DON'T WANT TO HURT HER TOO MUCH!"

"Exactly," the flower stated with a wink. "You're smarter than you look. All you want to do is to capture her, right? So… just keep that in mind."

Flowey left Papyrus to let the skeleton ponder over what he had said.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **I put a lot of spaces in Sans's opening lines on the doc I wrote this on, to mimic the large spacing between letters Sans uses ingame. It turns out it doesn't work on FFN for some reason. No links, no Comic Sans, no Papyrus, now no random spaces? Gosh dang it.**

 **I debated against Frisk actually getting the red flag, as in-game it's ludicrously hard to get, but it's the only location I'm aware of that mentions the specific traits that are implied to belong to the other human souls, so I added it in. After all, I'm already trying to include most of the game in here already, so it's justified, I guess.**

 **Next time: dogs, puzzles, and more dogs.**


	6. Dog's Song

As Frisk entered the next area, she noticed that there was a shallow pile of snow, seeming to cover something. As she kicked the snow away, she found that it was a map of the nearby area.

Notably, there was a mark in the top right corner where there was a red X with three dots next to it. Looking around, the child noticed that there was a spot off in the distance where trees corresponded to the dots, so there was likely something hidden around there.

As Frisk got closer to the area with the trees, she noticed that there were a few monsters casually loitering around the area where the X marked.

When she got close, they all looked up from whatever they were doing and ran up to her to engage in battle. She recognized Snowdrake again, but the other monsters were new to her.

One of them had a large head, but a small body. It had a large, pointy hat made out of ice on its head. The other monster… it looked like a large lump with limbs sticking out. Its eyes were flat, constantly shifting around to observe its surroundings.

The Snowdrake and the capped monster were less than thrilled to enter battle, while the lump monster was loudly licking powdery food off of its hands.

"Oh my god, why did Jerry have to come, too?" the capped monster complained to Snowdrake. "He's so disgusting! He'll distract people from my hat."

"I don't know, Ice Cap," the Snowdrake replied, with an expression of disdain. "Ugh. Jerry."

Both non-Jerry monsters glanced over to at Frisk.

"Hey you!" the Ice Cap called. "Wanna ditch him with us?"

Frisk nodded. Jerry didn't seem like a pleasant person to be around… so why not?

So while Jerry looked away, everyone else ran off. Somehow, the battle box followed along with them. After they had gone a fair distance away, they finally stopped.

Afterwards, the monsters began their attacks. The Ice Cap caused waves to appear at the top and bottom of the box, while Snowdrake launched a trail of projectiles that flew in a parabolic path.

"Dang it," Snowdrake started. "That's been the second time this week, we've been stuck with Jerry. I guess you could say it's happened tw-ice!"

Frisk laughed at this pun, as she recalled that Snowdrake really enjoyed it when people laughed at his jokes. Also, it was still kinda funny, even if a little corny.

Snowdrake glanced over to Ice Cap. "See? They have good taste in jokes!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," the hatted monster stated, too busy thinking about the hat on its head to pay attention.

The monsters attacked again, using the same attacks as before.

Snowdrake glanced backwards, noticing something that worried him. "Guys… guys… can I go now?"

"Feel free," Frisk stated. She looked over to the distance and saw why it was acting that way.

It was because Jerry was coming to join them again.

Snowdrake got right out of there, leaving Ice Cap behind. As the disgruntled monster was joined by Jerry, it let out a grumble.

"Oh well," Ice Cap said with a sigh. "At least there's still someone that can appreciate at my nice hat, right?"

Unfortunately, Frisk was looking at Jerry and not at its hat. She was trying to comprehend at what she was looking at, and was failing miserably.

"Hello?" the Ice Cap yelled. "My hat's up here!"

Instead of doing another wave attack, the monster launched chunks of ice upwards from the bottom of the box.

Because of Jerry's presence, Ice Cap's attack was slightly longer than usual. However, Jerry itself was not attacking.

"Man, the wifi sucks around here," Jerry complained, holding up a cell phone and generally not paying attention to the battle.

Ice Cap turned back to the child and noticed that she _still_ wasn't looking at its hat.

"Fine!" it ranted. "I don't care!"

The hatted monster attacked by itself again with more waves. All Jerry did was watch on as Frisk's soul dodged the attack.

"Man, Ice Cap… you really _suck_ at this," Jerry stated.

Ice Cap let out a moan, since today wasn't a great day for it. Not only was someone ignoring its hat, but it was being stuck with Jerry!

"Ok, screw this. I'm out!" Ice Cap stormed out of the battle. "See ya!"

Soon, all that was left was Jerry.

"So… " it noted. "This is awkward."

Frisk broke up the silence. "I guess those monsters don't like you very much, huh?"

"They don't," Jerry admitted. "Well, can you give me a ride home?"

"Hey, look," Frisk yelled, pointing behind Jerry, "over there!"

Jerry turned around and saw nothing. When he looked back, he found that the child had ditched him too.

The monster sighed. "Whatever."

* * *

Upon reaching the area with the trees, Frisk found that there was a switch located underneath the snow corresponding to the X on the map. Upon pressing it, she noticed that a spike obstacle that was blocking the way had retracted.

As she passed the retracted obstacle, a pair of cloaked dogs walked up to her, sniffing curiously through the air. Each one held a sharp axe in its hands.

"What's that smell?" one of the dogs asked.

"Where's that smell?" the other asked. This dog was female, and the other one was male.

"If you're a smell…" the male dog noted.

"... identify yoursmellf!" the female dog ordered.

The two dogs ran circles around Frisk, trying to identify the smell. It didn't appear that they could see very well from underneath those hoods.

When they came to a stop, they had ended up directly in front of the child.

"Hmmm…" the male dog began. "Here's the source of that weird smell… it makes me want to eliminate."

"... Eliminate you!" the dogs said in unison.

And then the battle box popped up.

Now that Frisk got a closer look, she noticed that the dogs were a couple, as she heard that they were saying sickly sweet things to each other.

From what they said, she discerned that the male was named Dogamy, and the female was named Dogaressa.

While the axes they wielded partially blocked her view of them, she noticed that the dogs were wearing each other's likenesses on front of their robes.

Frisk noted that since they were attacking her based on how she smelled, she should probably get rid of whatever smell that was identified with her. She looked for a way to change her scent in her surroundings, but didn't find something compelling to smell as.

So she just rolled around on the ground. The smell of dirt and snow should be good enough.

A pair of dogs appeared in the battle box; one on the left, one on the right. The left one launched a circle of hearts in the direction of the other. It was an endearing image, actually.

The dogs sniffed Frisk again. After she rolled around in the dirt, she smelled alright to them.

"What! Smells like a …" Dogamy began.

"Are you actually a little puppy?" Dogaressa asked.

The dogs switched to a different attack this time. Large axe heads rose and fell inside the battle box. The child's soul moved quickly along the bottom of the box to avoid being chopped by them.

Now that the dogs weren't so suspicious of Frisk's smell, she was able to get close to them. She raised her hand to their heads and gave them both a little pat on the head.

"Wow! Pet by another pup!" said Dogamy.

"A dog that pets other dogs… amazing!" said Dogeressa.

Both of the dogs were shocked by the revelation that there was a dog that was able to pet other dogs. So shocked, that after their next attack, the battle ended.

"Dogs can pet other dogs?" Dogamy asked.

"A new world has opened to us…" Dogaressa pondered.

"Thanks, weird puppy!" the dogs said in unison.

And they ran off, likely to share the news.

* * *

The next area contained a puzzle. There were two Xs on the ground, surrounded by chunks of snow on all but one side.

The nearby sign said to turn all the Xs into Os, then to press the switch. It turned out that stepping on an X would turn it into a O, so Frisk stepped on both Xs once and pressed the switch, lowering the spike obstacle up ahead.

She saw that Papyrus was standing there on the other side of the obstacle. He only noticed her as she walked up to him.

"WHAT!?" Papyrus said with a look of surprise on his face. "HOW DID YOU AVOID MY TRAP? AND MORE IMPORTANTLY… IS THERE ANY LEFT FOR ME?"

It took a moment until Frisk realized that he was talking about the spaghetti trap from earlier.

"All the spaghetti's been left for you," she admitted. Well, it was sorta the truth, since it was too cold to eat.

"REALLY!?" Papyrus said with glee. "WOWIE… YOU RESISTED THE FLAVOR OF MY HOMECOOKED PASTA, JUST SO YOU COULD SHARE IT WITH ME?"

Papyrus struck a dramatic pose. "FRET NOT HUMAN! I, MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS WILL MAKE YOU ALL THE PASTA YOU COULD EVER WANT!"

As Papyrus led Frisk to the next puzzle, he discussed what Sans was up to.

"MY BROTHER STARTED A SOCK COLLECTION RECENTLY. SADDENING, ISN'T IT?"

"I guess," Frisk replied. A smile crept up her face as an idea rose in her head.

"But I suppose you could say he's _stocking_ up."

 _"OH MY GOD, NOT YOU TOO!"_ Papyrus yelled, in reaction to her pun. "SANS IS INFLUENCING YOU TOO MUCH! SOMETIMES I WONDER WHAT HE WOULD DO, WITHOUT SUCH A COOL GUY TAKING CARE OF HIM!"

At this point Frisk wasn't sure which skeleton was taking care of the other. She reasoned that it was likely a mutual relationship.

"IT'S A GOOD THING I SPOTTED YOU FIRST!" Papyrus pointed out. "I'M SURE HE WOULD HAVE MADE A WEIRD FIRST IMPRESSION."

She supposed that stalking someone, then pranking them with a whoopie cushion did make for a weird first impression.

"ANYWAYS, HERE WE ARE!" Papyrus gestured to the next puzzle.

"HUMAN!" he addressed. "YOU WERE TAKING A LONG TIME TO ARRIVE, SO I DECIDED TO IMPROVE THIS PUZZLE BY ARRANGING THE SNOW TO LOOK MORE LIKE MY FACE."

Papyrus's expression changed from amused to annoyed.

"UNFORTUNATELY, THE SNOW FROZE TO THE GROUND. NOW THE SOLUTION IS DIFFERENT! AND, AS USUAL, MY LAZY BROTHER IS NOWHERE AROUND."

Papyrus looked insecure for a second. "I SUPPOSE WHAT I AM SAYING IS…"

He confidently struck a pose. "WORRY NOT, HUMAN! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL SOLVE THIS CONUNDRUM! THEN WE CAN BOTH PROCEED!

Papyrus pointed to the large field of Xs and snow piles ahead of him.

"MEANWHILE, FEEL FREE TO TRY THE PUZZLE YOURSELF! I'LL TRY NOT TO GIVE AWAY THE ANSWER!"

Frisk took a shot at the puzzle, as it was similar to the one in the previous room. However, she found out that when she stepped on a O, it would turn into a triangle.

"Papyrus," she asked, "are green triangles okay?"

"THE SOLUTION CONTAINS ONLY Os, I BELIEVE… SO GREEN TRIANGLES ARE NOT OKAY!"

Frisk stomped on the triangle a few times, but it refused to change to something else.

"Whoops. Can I restart?"

"FEEL FREE TO HIT THE SWITCH OVER HERE."

So Frisk hit the switch and stared intently at the puzzle, trying to map out a path in her head. However, she found that the puzzle was unsolvable if she began on the side she was currently on. That was okay, though. The child enjoyed thinking outside the box.

She glanced over to the side and realized she could actually walk around the puzzle to enter it from a different side.

Once she went to the puzzle's back side, a solution came to her.

Once she stepped on all the tiles only once and stepped on the switch, the spike obstacle blocking their progress retracted.

"WOW!" Papyrus exclaimed in surprise. "YOU SOLVED IT! AND YOU DID IT ALL WITHOUT MY HELP! YOU MUST CARE ABOUT PUZZLES LIKE I DO!"

The child put on a triumphant smile. Puzzles were actually pretty fun.

"WELL, I'M SURE YOU'LL LOVE THE NEXT PUZZLE THEN! IT MIGHT EVEN BE TOO EASY FOR YOU!"

Papyrus let out a laugh and ran off to the next puzzle. Sans approached from behind the child, joining her by her side.

"good job on solving it so quickly," Sans complimented. "you didn't even need my help. which is great, 'cause i love doing absolutely nothing."

* * *

There was a floor filled with greyed out tiles in the next area.

"HEY!" Papyrus called, with Sans standing by his side. "IT'S THE HUMAN! YOU'RE GONNA LOVE THIS PUZZLE! IT WAS MADE BY THE GREAT DR. ALPHYS!"

Papyrus pointed to the tiles. "YOU SEE THESE TILES!? ONCE I THROW THIS SWITCH, THEY WILL BEGIN TO CHANGE COLOR!"

Papyrus went on a long-winded explanation of what each color of tile did. Frisk tried her best to pay attention to its entirety, but she had trouble recalling everything.

After the explanation ended, she asked a question. "Uh… do you have some paper so I can write this all down?

"HERE, TAKE MY NOTES!" Papyrus walked up to Frisk and handed her a paper. It was filled with illegible chicken scratch and generally unhelpful diagrams. For example, off in the corner, Papyrus had written "why don't the yellow tiles smell lemony?"

Frisk recollected her thoughts for a moment.

"Let's see if I have this straight," she said. "Red and yellow tiles are impassible, but yellow tiles will shock me. Green tiles cause a monster battle. Blue tiles are impassable after stepping on an orange tile, but become passable again after stepping on a purple tile… which are also slippery. Pink tiles do nothing. Do I have everything?"

"I… I THINK?" Papyrus unconfidently confirmed. "SURE!"

The child hoped that she was right. If she wasn't, this wouldn't be very fun.

"BY THE WAY," the skeleton continued, "THERE'S ONE LAST THING. THIS PUZZLE IS ENTIRELY RANDOM! WHEN I PULL THIS SWITCH, IT WILL MAKE A PUZZLE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE! NOT EVEN I WILL KNOW THE SOLUTION!"

So this had the possibility of going absolutely awful.

"NYEH HEH HEH! GET READY!"

Papyrus flipped a switch. The tiles began to randomize, alternating between colors faster and faster. Frisk closed her eyes, as she was getting disoriented by the flashing colors.

The noises the machinery made stopped. Frisk glanced down at the tile puzzle, to realize that the puzzle was now very simple. There was a straight path of pink tiles, flanked by rows of red tiles.

Well then.

Papyrus, realizing that the puzzle had backfired, slowly spun around as he exited the area.

Frisk walked over the pink tiles and noticed that Sans was waiting for her.

"What happened with the puzzle?" she asked.

Sans shrugged. "i dunno. somebody probably tampered with it or something."

* * *

Meanwhile, in a far away place in the underground, a monster in a lab coat chuckled to herself.

* * *

"actually, that spaghetti from earlier… it wasn't too bad for my brother," Sans admitted. "since he started cooking lessons, he's been improving a lot."

Frisk had kinda wanted to try Papyrus's spaghetti. Maybe she would ask Papyrus to make some spaghetti later that wasn't so cold.

"i bet if he keeps it up, next year he'll even make something edible."

Oh. Never mind.

* * *

What awaited her next was quite a spectacle, to put it simply.

Someone had tried to create statues of dog heads out of snow, except the necks were made absurdly long. Many of the dog heads had been severed from their necks, as the extended, bending necks could not support the weight of the heads.

These beheaded dog necks and their heads were located around a sentry station, similar to the one Doggo had hid in.

A lone monster stood on the sidelines, surveying this wretched scene.

"A dog just rushed in here, filled with inspiration," the monster explained. "It kept trying to build a snow-dog that expressed its own emotions. But, as it built, it kept getting more excited about the sculpture. Its neck got longer and longer, and it added more and more snow, until…"

The monster faced to the mess the dog had created. "It was rather sad to watch, but I couldn't turn away."

Frisk still regretted nothing.

* * *

Frisk continued on. She noticed that there was another puzzle using the Xs, except between them were a layer of ice.

The ice was much more slippery than she had initially thought. While trying to solve the puzzle, she had missed the X that she wanted to step on.

As Frisk slid past the non-slippery area of the puzzle, she realized that she was going to fly off of the edge.

Oh dear.

She panicked, desperately trying to scramble away from the edge, but she could not stop herself from moving.

Her feet left the ice and launched her into the abyss, her heart pounding in her chest. She screamed the entire way down.

* * *

Sans pulled out a red marker and wrote his name on a pile of snow. "there we go, all done."

"SANS…" Papyrus said with a hint of contempt. "YOUR LAZINESS KNOWS NO BOUNDS."

Papyrus was making a sculpture of himself, complete with large biceps and a small cape. Sans was making a sculpture of himself as well, but he wasn't as motivated to make something, so he improvised.

The skeletons heard someone screaming.

"HEY, ISN'T THAT THE HUMAN?" Papyrus asked.

Sans and Papyrus watched as a familiar figure was falling through the air right above the platform they were on.

The human landed on her back into another pile of snow.

"oh," Sans noted. "hiya, frisk."

"Aaaaaa-" Frisk continued screaming until she realized that she wasn't falling anymore. She took several deep breaths before continuing.

"Hi, Sans. Hi, Papyrus."

"i just finished my sculpture. want to take a look?" Sans gestured to his pile of snow.

"I"M NEARLY FINISHED WITH MY SCULPTURE!" Papyrus proudly presented. "FEAST YOUR EYES ON THE SNOW PAPYRUS!"

Frisk looked at the sculptures and laughed, although that fall had hurt. A lot.

"Ow… " the child moaned. "Can I have a hand?"

Sans helped to pick Frisk off of the ground. She dusted the snow off from her clothes.

"you didn't need to slide off like that," Sans remarked. "because we already know you've been _falling_ for us."

Sans winked as the child laughed out loud. Papyrus let out a loud, pained groan.

"How do I get back up to the puzzle?" she asked.

"there's a slope right there," Sans pointed out. "you can get back by climbing that. which reminds me, we've spent too much time here. we need to get to the next puzzle before you do."

Sans walked away, as Papyrus completed the finishing touches on his sculpture and soon followed him.

* * *

Now that Frisk was more careful while on the ice, the rest of the puzzle went fine. She slowly slid from X to X, as one fall had hurt enough.

When she had turned all the Xs into Os and pressed the switch, a bridge formed.

There was an icy path through the tall, dark trees. Frisk slid through it, as it was very slippery. Meanwhile, snow was falling on her head, forming a hat.

After the child had reached the end of the ice, she shook the snow off of her head and took a detour down a slope, as she noticed Sans was standing down below.

Frisk took a look around as she was walking. She saw what appeared to be a bunch of eyes peeking out from beneath the rock. It was strange, but otherwise they didn't do too much, other than ominously staring out.

The child looked back ahead and noticed that Sans was suddenly ahead of her. Wasn't he behind her a second ago?

She got so distracted, she didn't notice that a monster was approaching her. She was startled when the battle box suddenly appeared.

"Hey! You!"

She looked to the monster attacking her.

"My name's Gyftrot," it began, "and I— _HEY! STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT!"_

It resembled a reindeer, with some decorations located around its head. It had a small dog sitting in its pineneedle-covered antlers, with barbed wire made of pipe cleaners wrapped around them, and a picture taped on its forehead.

Frisk immediately dropped the confused expression on her face.

"Anyways," Gyftrot continued, "I need to ask you a favor. Some goshdarn teenagers thought that it would be funny if they decorated me with these _goshdarn things!"_

The monster shook its head. "'It's just a prank, bro,' they said. Ha ha, very funny."

"And do you know what's even worse?" it continued to grumble. "I don't have any hands, so I can't even get the darn things off!"

"And you want me to take them off," Frisk said.

"Exactly!" Gyftrot stated. "Wanna help me out or what!?"

The child held out her hands to the monster's antlers. With barks of relief, the tiny dog jumped down into them. She placed the dog on the ground and it ran off.

"Ah, that feels a little better," the monster remarked. "Darn thing wouldn't shut up…"

Three presents were shuffled around at the bottom of the battle box. After a few seconds, they all rose upwards, but one of them was light blue. Frisk's soul was above that one, so she kept her soul still and avoided damage.

The picture was removed next. She noticed that it was of Snowdrake, along with what looked like one of his parents.

Gyftrot, still a little irritated, dropped snowflakes from the top of the battle box. Frisk's soul had trouble dodging them all, and was nailed by one. It didn't hurt too much, thankfully.

Finally, Frisk removed the barbed wire from its antlers.

"Ahh… a weight has been lifted," the monster remarked.

The child moved on the to the pine needles on Gyftrot's antlers—

"Woah woah woah, those are real," the monster stated. "Don't touch them."

"Oh, alright." Frisk retracted her hands from them.

The monster nodded to her. "Thanks, kiddo! Now get outta here so I can get some peace and quiet, alright!?"

And with that, the monster trotted away, the battle coming to an end.

* * *

She walked along the side of the cliff, and saw that there was a cave. Upon entering, she found that all that was there were a few glowing mushrooms and a locked door.

Maybe it would be important later.

* * *

Backtracking all the way back from the detour and continuing on led to a tiny doghouse surrounded by rounded piles of snow.

The emptiness of the scene was bothering Frisk. She observed these piles, seeing if there was something strange about them. Most of them were ordinary, bar one that she found some coins under.

As she approached the last snow pile, a white tail popped out the back of the pile, and a dog head popped out from the front.

"It's so cute!" Frisk thought. She crouched down to pet it on the head.

It let out a yip, then it raised the rest of its body from underneath the pile of snow.

A hulking suit of armor easily over twice her height arose from the pile, with the tiny dog's head located at the top of it. In its hand was a spear with a dog's face on it.

Frisk fell backwards in shock, then scrambled to get back up on her feet as the battle box popped up.

Well, it didn't look like the dog was trying to kill her. That was a good sign. It was watching her intently, waiting for her command.

So Frisk held out a hand, inviting the dog to come over to her.

Despite wearing a large suit of armor, the dog playfully leapt towards her, barking excitedly and slobbering all over the place. The girl was knocked over, as the dog wasn't really paying attention to her safety.

A spear the length of the battle box's height swung towards Frisk's soul. The spear's color alternated between white and blue, but it touched the soul as it was white, dealing damage to her.

The dog began to lie down on the ground, waiting to be pet.

So it was pet.

It began to curl up and get comfortable, its head in Frisk's lap as she continued to pet it. The dog soon fell asleep.

Frisk relaxed for a moment, listening to the noise of the dog's snoring.

However, just as quickly as it fell asleep, it woke up and excitedly began an attack.

A small dog slept at the bottom of the battle box. However, when Frisk moved her soul, the dog woke up and launched projectiles consisting of the word "bark". They flew very quickly, so Frisk had trouble dodging them.

Frisk took out the spare Nice Cream to relieve herself of the damage that her soul was taking. The writing on the wrapper wished her to have a wonderful day.

As she fully unwrapped it, she noticed that the dog was eagerly panting and slobbering as it looked at the treat, so before she ate it, she held it out to the dog as it happily got in a few licks.

The sleeping dog appeared in the battle box again. She noticed that if she didn't move, the dog wouldn't wake up and attack.

The child wondered what to do next, until she recalled something Toriel had said back in the ruins: that if a dog attacked her, she could use her stick to play a game of fetch. Which was a better alternative than hitting monsters with it…

Frisk got up, pulled the stick out from her bag, and waved it in the dog's direction, grabbing its attention. She threw it and watched as the dog excitedly picked it up and brought it back to her.

They played fetch for a while, with Frisk dashing out of the way several times to avoid being trampled.

Soon, the dog grew very tired. It rested its head on Frisk's body as she sat back down on the ground.

After another attack, the child pet it on the head some more, as the dog sank its entire weight into her. Because of the armor, her entire body would likely ache later.

However, Frisk could tell that she still hadn't pet enough.

So she pet it one more time. The dog let out a woof of pleasure as it rolled off Frisk and flopped over with its legs in the air. Since it was now contented, the battle box vanished.

After a few quiet moments of contentment, the dog got back up on its feet and stood before the girl. Suddenly, the dog jumped out of its massive armor.

It was as small as Frisk had thought it earlier to be, before the entirety was revealed, but it had been inexplicably controlling an entire suit of armor the entire time.

As she knelt down to greet it, the dog pounced upwards and gave her a wet, sloppy lick on the face. She giggled uncontrollably as the dog ran little circles around her.

It leapt back into the armor, with its rear poking out where the head was supposed to go, and walked off, going terribly off balance.

As she watched the dog leave, she started to get tired, as playing with the dog had tuckered her out. She sat on the ground, eyelids drooping, as she nearly began to doze off…

That is, until she realized that falling asleep in the snow in the middle of the underground might not be such as great idea.

Frisk took a handful of snow from a pile and rubbed it on her face. The feeling would help to jolt her awake.

Not by much, but enough to keep walking on.

* * *

The cliff ended soon afterwards as she continued on.

However, there was what appeared to be a long wooden bridge connecting to another cliff. Ropes had been laid out on both sides.

Frisk had seen bridges like these only in illustrations and on TV, and from what she heard, they were very treacherous to traverse.

However, as she stepped on it, she found that the bridge was stable. No creaking, shaking, or even moving at all. It was too stable…

The child stomped on it, but it still didn't budge. She could tell that whatever the bridge was made out of was very hard. She took a closer at the bridge and found that the bridge wasn't really made of wood. It was a rock formation that had been covered with brown paint.

Whoever wanted to make it look more like a bridge even bothered to add the ropes at the side to complete the bridge disguise.

As Frisk walked across, she tightly held onto the ropes. Halfway across, she looked down and realized how high up she was. The countless pine trees made up the forest below the bridge looked so tiny!

Fear gripped ahold of Frisk as the memory of the long fall into the underground came back to her. She stopped right in her tracks, and uncontrollably shivered as she stared down at the earth below her.

The child forced herself to look back up, while her grip on the rope tightened and her feet became planted firmly into the rock. She took several sharp breaths, gulping in the cold air, and continued to walk on.

* * *

She found that Papyrus and Sans were waiting for her at the end of the bridge. They both turned to at her as she had about a quarter of the bridge left to traverse.

"THIS IS YOUR FINAL AND MOST DANGEROUS CHALLENGE!" Papyrus announced. "BEHOLD! THE GAUNTLET OF DEADLY TERROR!"

Papyrus pressed a button on a control panel. As the sound of mechanical whirring filled the air, an arsenal of deadly weapons appeared, pointed directly at the bridge: a chain with a spiked metal ball at the end, a few large spears, a medieval-styled cannon, a makeshift flamethrower, and… a dog hanging from a rope?

"WHEN I SAY THE WORD," Papyrus explained, "IT WILL FULLY ACTIVATE! CANNONS WILL FIRE! SPIKES WILL SWING! BLADES WILL SLICE! EACH PART WILL SWING VIOLENTLY UP AND — HEY, WHERE ARE YOU GOING?"

Because Frisk had been intimidated by all the weaponry, she had turned around and begun walking in the other direction.

"i think this puzzle is, um, a bit too terrifying," Sans suggested.

"DON'T BE SILLY!" Papyrus protested. "KIDS LOVE DEADLY PUZZLES!"

He turned his attention back to the child. "HEY! DO YOU TREAT YOUR MOTHER THIS WAY WHEN SHE MAKES YOU A PUZZLE!? GET BACK HERE!"

Frisk turned around and walked back to where she stood before.

"GOOD!" Papyrus exclaimed. "ONCE THIS PUZZLE IS ACTIVATED, ONLY THE TINIEST CHANCE OF VICTORY WILL REMAIN!"

Papyrus's hand hovered over the control panel. "ARE YOU READY!? I! AM! ABOUT! TO DO IT!"

However, the skeleton continued to float his hand above the buttons, while the weaponry remained in place.

"well?" Sans asked. "what's the holdup?"

Papyrus turned his attention away from the gauntlet.

"HOLDUP!? WHAT HOLDUP!?" he said. A hint of wavering was present in his voice. "I'M... I'M ABOUT TO ACTIVATE IT NOW!"

Yet not a button was pressed. The weapons still refused to move.

Sans broke up the silence. "that, uh, doesn't look very activated."

Papyrus turned back to the puzzle, with lesser confidence than he did before.

"WELL!" he exclaimed, "THIS CHALLENGE! IT SEEMS… MAYBE... TOO EASY TO DEFEAT THE HUMAN WITH."

Now that Papyrus had an excuse, he started speaking up again. "YEAH! WE CAN'T USE THIS ONE! I AM A SKELETON WITH STANDARDS! MY PUZZLES ARE VERY FAIR! MY TRAPS ARE EXPERTLY COOKED! BUT THIS METHOD IS TOO DIRECT! NO CLASS AT ALL!"

Papyrus impatiently slammed another button on the control panel. "AWAY IT GOES!"

All the deadly weapons retracted into the side of the cliff.

Papyrus turned away for a moment. "PHEW!"

He noticed that Frisk was still watching everything that was going on. And frankly, she was quite confused.

"WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT!?" the skeleton yelled. "THIS WAS ANOTHER DECISIVE VICTORY FOR PAPYRUS!"

Papyrus began one of his signature laughs, but he had finished it strangely, as if he wasn't sure that this was a good idea anymore. He swiftly walked away, having conflicted emotions on what to do.

Frisk finished crossing the "bridge" and saw that Sans wanted to share some information with her.

"i don't know what my brother's going to do now," he noted. "if i were you, i would make sure i understand blue attacks."

It was good thing that Frisk had a good understanding of how they worked, as many of the monsters she encountered recently had incorporated them.

"anyways," Sans continued, "snowdin's just ahead, if you need to take a break. i'd be on my toes, though. my brother might be preparing something."

Sans and Frisk stared off into the direction where Papyrus had run off.

"i wouldn't be worried, though. if you keep going the way you are now… i think you'll be just fine."

* * *

Papyrus stood at the far edge of the town of Snowdin, looking down at his flower friend.

"Say… " Flowey spoke. "Did you ever catch the human's name? I would ask myself, but I don't think she would react too well to a talking flower."

"HMM… " Papyrus tried to recall. "MY BROTHER USED A NAME FOR HER. I THINK IT WAS SOMETHING LIKE… 'FRISK', I THINK?"

"Okay, thanks!" the flower replied. "You know what's going to happen next, don't you?"

"I C-CAPTURE THE H-HUMAN… AND THEN, I'LL BE ABLE TO JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD!"

"That's correct!" Flowey stated with a wink. "Just remember what we practiced, okay? We don't want to beat her down too much."

"ALRIGHT! THANKS, FLOWER!"

Flowey burrowed into the ground, leaving Papyrus behind. He popped up behind a tree in Snowdin, where he awaited Frisk's arrival.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **I do not apologize for the name of this chapter.**

 **Papyrus actually confirms that the bridge is fake in a phone call with him. The amount of detail given to the world of Undertale is astounding.**

 **Next time: all we're going to do is sit around and bone-doggle. But seriously, a snow-down is coming up.**


	7. Bonetrousle

**For a super-cool experience, look up Bonetrousle from the Undertale OST, then wait until the cue to hit play!**

 **Also, quick note: If you haven't seen or played a Genocide run of Undertale, some lines of dialogue may be spoilery. Chapters with explicit spoilers will be noted as such, though this one is not. Just a heads up.**

* * *

As Frisk walked into town, a large sign greeted her: "Welcome to Snowdin."

Looking ahead, many wooden houses awaited her, radiating a warm, cozy glow. The sight of such a friendly town filled her with determination, giving rise to a smile on her face.

On the floor, the child noticed a box, appearing to be similar to the one she had encountered earlier. When she opened it, she found that everything she had put in the earlier box were now present in this one. How it worked, she didn't know. It was definitely convenient, though.

After some consideration, the child placed the piece of the snowman in there so that she wouldn't accidentally lose it.

She then entered a building marked as a shop, and was greeted with a cozy interior lighted with orange, like the light emitted by a fireplace sitting in the back. At the counter, a tall rabbit monster stood, looking down at her visitor.

"Hello, traveller," the monster greeted. "How can I help you?"

The child looked among the wares sitting on the counter. There were a couple of gloves similar to the one on her hand, and a bandanna with abs drawn on it. Off to the side was sign that listed some food items she could buy: either a two-pronged popsicle, or a cinnamon roll in the shape of a bunny.

Well, Sans did warn her about his brother, so it was best to be prepared.

Frisk dug into a pocket of her bag and pulled out a large handful of coins. She decided on a couple of popsicles and a couple of cinnamon rolls. She wanted to conserve her money, so she skipped the gloves and the bandanna, since they didn't seem to be too useful.

The shopkeeper went to the back to grab the items. When she came back, she spread the goods on the table and warmly smiled at the child.

"Hiya!" the shopkeeper greeted. "I can't remember the last time I saw a fresh face around here. Are you here by yourself?"

Frisk looked up at the shopkeeper. She seemed to be a friendly person.

"I'm just by myself," the child replied.

"Since you seem to be a newcomer, I'll give you a quick rundown of what to do here in Snowdin," the rabbit continued. "Grillby's has food, and the library has information. If you're tired, you can take a nap at the inn. My sister runs it. And if you're bored, you can sit outside and watch those wacky skeletons do their thing."

The shopkeeper noticed that the word "skeletons" had caught the girl's attention.

"There's two of 'em… brothers, I think. They just showed up one day and… asserted themselves."

The rabbit let out a small laugh. "The town has gotten a lot more interesting since then."

From what Frisk had seen, she had expected that to be the case.

She decided to ask a question, propping her arms up onto the counter.

"Can you tell me more about Snowdin?"

The rabbit replied, after some thought. "Hmm… I could tell you about its history. A long time ago, monsters lived in the ruins back there in the forest. Long story short, we all decided to leave the ruins and head for the end of the caverns."

Frisk recalled all the buildings that she had seen on the balcony, back at the ruins. No wonder they had looked like people lived there before.

"Along the way, some fuzzy folk decided they liked the cold and set up camp in Snowdin."

The rabbit ended there, but then she thought of something else to say.

"Oh, and don't think about trying to explore the ruins… The door's been locked for ages. So unless you're a ghost or can burrow under the door, forget about it."

The child realized that Toriel was right: the door in the basement was a one-way exit, which meant… she couldn't come back to see her. Suddenly, she felt a little sadder.

"So… how are you?" she asked, out of listlessness.

The shopkeeper pondered that question for a moment.

"Life is the same as usual," the monster replied. "A little claustrophobic. But...we all know deep down that freedom is coming, don't we?"

She turned her gaze to the ceiling. "As long as we got that hope, we can grit our teeth and face the same struggles, day after day… that's life, ain't it?"

"Yeah," Frisk replied. Maybe if she had hope, she could see Toriel again. At the very least, it would make her feel better.

She reached out and grabbed the goods, dropping them into her bag. "Well, it was nice to chat with you."

The rabbit smiled and waved goodbye. "Bye now! Come again sometime!"

* * *

She went to visit the inn next door. Another rabbit ran the establishment, standing behind the counter.

"Welcome to Snowed Inn!" the rabbit greeted. "Snowdin's premier hotel! One night is 80G."

Frisk looked at the name of the inn again and realized that yes… it was a pun.

She really needed a rest, so staying here sounded like a good idea. She pulled out the money from her bag and received a room key in return.

The child went upstairs and entered the small, comfy room. She kicked off her shoes, took off her coat, and put it on the floor. She pulled the covers over herself and fell straight asleep, despite the loud snoring coming from the other room.

"Hiya! You look like you had a great sleep." The innkeeper greeted as Frisk left her room. "Which is incredible, because you were only up there for only three hours… "

Huh. She thought she had slept for longer.

The rabbit handed Frisk the 80G that she had paid earlier. "Here's your money back. You can pay me if you're going to stay overnight."

That was very generous of her.

The child took a walk through Snowdin. Along the way, the sight of a bunny taking a smaller bunny on a leash for a walk caught her attention.

That was probably normal in monster culture, though. She tore her eyes away from them, deciding that it was best if she didn't think about it too much.

Moving forward, she noticed a familiar-looking, colorfully decorated pine tree located in the middle of town. Besides it was a bear-like monster, rearranging the presents under it.

She crouched down next to the bear, observing the presents. They were addressed to various townsfolk sat, marked to be from a person named "Santa".

From books she had read, Frisk had heard that Christmas was supposed to be a time of good cheer, a time to spend with family, a time where a jolly fat person named Santa would bring presents under a Christmas tree.

To her, it was just the time when the benefactors would decorate the orphanage with colorful objects and leave bags of assorted goodies under a tree, marked with the names of the children. And obviously, there was no such thing as Santa. That was a lie.

She laughed to herself as she recalled memories that had originated from their version of "Christmas". On occasion, many children had been unable to find their goodies because their names had been misspelled, ranging from mere letter substitutions to the whole name being botched altogether.

This would lead to plenty of running jokes among the kids. In fact, one could call Frisk "Frish" from behind and she would likely turn around. She was still surprised that they were able to botch five measly letters.

As she walked away from the presents, a short, arm-less monster wearing a striped sweater clumsily ran up to her.

"Yo!" he called out. "You're a kid too, right?"

Frisk nodded. She hadn't seen any other children in the Underground yet.

"Awesome!" the monster exclaimed, putting on a grin. "I can tell 'cause you're wearing a striped coat. What's your name?"

"My name's Frisk," she replied.

"That's cool! It's been nice to meet ya."

As the young monster walked off, Frisk looked off to the side and noticed a building labelled "Grillby's". Out of it wafted the smell of something really delicious. She peered inside, watching the dogs that she had encountered earlier play a card game.

The smell brought back memories of home. There had been a diner located nearby the orphanage. Some of the older orphans that had low-paying jobs were able to eat there on occasion, but the others, Frisk included, had never been inside.

On some days, when they were busier than normal, the smell permeated through the air outside. The smell was tantalizing.

There was even that one time where an older orphan had brought back some food from there for his younger brother. He ended up sharing a lot of the food, though, because everyone wanted some.

Frisk smiled, then felt something ache inside of her. Just looking around Snowdin made her a little homesick.

* * *

She decided to visit the library next. Or, as the sign outside read, the "libarby".

Back on the surface, there was a library at the far end of town. The caretakers didn't want the children to borrow books from there, as if the books were damaged, they would have to be paid for. Frisk still went there to read the books directly at the library, but not very often, as it was a very long walk and vehicles… well, she avoided them at all costs.

Inside, a few older monsters were at a table, hard at work creating new word searches, junior jumbles, and crosswords for the newspaper.

The child glanced at the back, seeing that the books were sorted in the bookcases by the color of their spines. At random, she pulled out a book from each bookcase and sat down on the floor in the corner, placing her stack of books next to her.

She began to read, one book at a time.

The red book contained a school report about monster funerals. When monsters died, they would turn into dust. At funerals, the dust was spread on the deceased person's favorite thing. It was believed that their essence would live on in that thing.

The blue book contained some interesting information. While monsters were mostly made of magic, human beings are mostly made of water. Humans were far stronger than monsters physically, as they had physical forms, but monsters were much more adept at handling magic.

The yellow book was unfinished, according to one of the monsters at the table.

The orange book described how the bodies of monsters were attuned to their soul. A monster that didn't want to fight would have weakened defenses, and a monster would also be hurt more by an attacker with cruel intentions.

Therefore, if a being with a powerful SOUL struck with the desire to kill… well, the implications weren't very pleasant.

The light-green book contained some history of the monsters. She noticed that she had read a similar book back at Toriel's home.

She opened up to a random page. "Fearing the humans no longer, we moved out of our old city, Home. We braved harsh cold, damp swampland, and searing heat… Until we reached what we now call our capital. New Home. Again, our King is really bad at names…?"

She had gone over this information with Toriel beforehand, however. Nothing new.

So she went ahead and opened the last book, which was a darker shade of green.

"Love, hope, compassion… This is what people say monster souls are made of. But the absolute nature of the soul is unknown. After all, humans have proven their souls don't need these things to exist."

As the girl read that, she felt an uncontrollable shudder pass through her. She had heard that there were some pretty awful people out there. To think that humans were less compassionate than what they called "monsters"... it was a scary thought.

And with that, she was done reading for now, having exhausted her pile. Carefully, she put the books back into their places and left.

* * *

As Frisk continued on past the library, she came upon a large, spacious house. It towered over the other houses of Snowdin, standing two stories tall, and was decorated with strings of bright, colorful lights.

Next to it sat two mailboxes. One was unlabeled, but it was overflowing with unread junk mail. The other was labelled "Papyrus", but it was empty.

The child concluded to herself that this was where Papyrus lived. She wasn't sure, but she took a reasonable guess that Sans lived there too. She wondered something: how did they get such a big house?

She walked up to the door and tried to turn the doorknob. It was locked, as she should had expected.

Looking back ahead, the child found that the house was on the edge of Snowdin. Moving on forward would take her away from town.

She stared out into the distance. She was able to make out a tall, solitary figure.

It seemed that it was waiting for someone.

* * *

As it stared off into the distance, Frisk cautiously approached it.

As it heard her crunching in the snow, the figure turned to her direction. She recognized the cape, the battle body, the figure's bone-white head. It was Papyrus.

"HUMAN," he addressed.

Frisk stopped right in her tracks in front of the skeleton.

Papyrus looked directly at her. "ALLOW ME TO TELL YOU ABOUT SOME COMPLEX FEELINGS."

He continued on with a tone of contemplation, something that Frisk was not expecting.

"FEELINGS LIKE… THE JOY OF FINDING ANOTHER PASTA LOVER. THE ADMIRATION FOR ANOTHER'S PUZZLE- SOLVING SKILLS. THE DESIRE TO HAVE A COOL, SMART PERSON THINK YOU ARE COOL."

Papyrus nervously shuffled in place slightly.

"THESE FEELINGS…"

All of a sudden, he spoke with enthusiasm. "THEY MUST BE WHAT YOU ARE FEELING RIGHT NOW!"

Swiftly, his speech grew faster and more eloquent. "I CAN HARDLY IMAGINE WHAT IT MUST BE LIKE TO FEEL THAT WAY. AFTER ALL, I AM VERY GREAT."

And yet something in Papyrus's voice suggested to Frisk that this was not the truth.

"I DON'T EVER WONDER WHAT HAVING LOTS OF FRIENDS IS LIKE."

By the way he had said it, the child could tell that it was a lie.

"I PITY YOU, LONELY HUMAN…"

The skeleton perked up. "WORRY NOT! YOU SHALL BE LONELY NO LONGER!"

At the sound of it, the girl could not help but smile.

"I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL BE YOUR…"

For a moment, Papyrus hesitated to continue, suddenly very conflicted.

Slowly, he turned away from the child, his head drooping.

"NO…"

The skeleton turned to the sky, letting out a cry of frustration. "NO, THIS IS ALL WRONG! I CAN'T BE YOUR FRIEND!"

Frisk's smile vanished. Uh oh…

Papyrus turned back around, arm outreached as it pointed directly at the child. "YOU ARE A HUMAN! I MUST CAPTURE YOU! THEN, I CAN FULFILL MY LIFELONG DREAM!"

 _"POWERFUL! POPULAR! PRESTIGIOUS!"_ he cried. "THAT'S _PAPYRUS!"_

Papyrus stood upright, his voice filled with authority and confidence.

"THE NEWEST MEMBER… _OF THE ROYAL GUARD!"_

* * *

A battle box appeared between them, initiating a fight.

Papyrus blocked the way, letting Frisk make the first move.

Frisk put on a frown. She really didn't want to hurt Papyrus. After all, he just wanted to do anything he could in order to follow his dreams— human-capturing included— so why should he suffer for that?

She wasn't really sure what to do, then.

"Papyrus?" she asked.

"YES, HUMAN?"

"I don't want to fight you."

"HMM… SO YOU WON'T FIGHT… THEN, LET'S SEE IF YOU CAN HANDLE MY FABLED 'BLUE ATTACK!' BEHOLD!"

Countless bones of various sizes slided in, flooding the battle box. However, they were all the same light blue as the blue attacks Frisk had encountered earlier, so they were easily avoided by simply staying in place.

As the last few bones slid past her soul, she began to loosen up.

Well, that wasn't too bad—

Suddenly, the soul's color turned from red to a dark blue. It moved down to the bottom of the box, where it was jabbed by a very short white bone.

Bewildered, Frisk turned her gaze to Papyrus, who seemed to be very proud of himself.

"YOU'RE BLUE NOW," he exclaimed. "THAT'S MY ATTACK! NYEH HEH HEH!"

* * *

 _(HIT IT!)_

* * *

Frisk stared at the box, a little confused by the color of her soul.

"Papyrus, what did you do to my soul?" she asked.

"TRY MOVING IT UPWARDS TO JUMP!" he explained, adding a loud cackle onto the end.

While Papyrus was preparing an attack, Frisk noticed that once her soul moved upwards, a force would drag it back down. Kinda like… gravity.

This made a bit more sense to her now.

A few short bones slid in from the bottom-right. Frisk figured out how to dodge them by guiding her soul over them. As it touched the ground after passing over a bone, she moved it upwards to dodge the next one.

A thought occurred to her. "This blue stuff wears off, right?"

It seemed that Papyrus wasn't sure, either. "EVENTUALLY, I THINK? I WOULDN'T WORRY ABOUT IT TOO MUCH."

The skeleton launched another attack. The bones were taller, but otherwise it wasn't too different— Frisk managed to dodge them all.

"HMM… YOU MAY HAVE EASILY AVOIDED THAT ATTACK…" Papyrus noted, considering his options. "BUT HOW HIGH CAN YOU JUMP?"

His next attack was made of an array of bones of various sizes, sliding in at a much faster speed. The child let out a yelp as she moved her soul quickly to get over them.

"YEAH!" Papyrus cried. "DON'T MAKE ME USE MY SPECIAL ATTACK!"

And so Papyrus continued to use bone attack after bone attack. Many bones of varying sizes and movement speeds slid in from the sides of the box, and Frisk moved her soul frantically to try to dodge them all.

* * *

Papyrus began a monologue while his attacks were increasing in complexity.

"I CAN ALMOST TASTE MY FUTURE POPULARITY!" the skeleton exclaimed, while striking dramatic poses and loudly rattling his bones.

"PAPYRUS: HEAD OF THE ROYAL GUARD! PAPYRUS: UNPARALLELED SPAGHETTORE!"

Frisk was pretty sure he had made up that last word.

"UNDYNE WILL BE REALLY PROUD OF ME!" he continued, wearing a grin on his face. "THE KING WILL TRIM A HEDGE IN THE SHAPE OF MY SMILE! MY BROTHER WILL …"

He thought about it for a second before going on.

Papyrus dropped his smile. "WELL, HE WON'T CHANGE VERY MUCH."

* * *

The child's soul crashed into another bone, causing her to stumble.

She wasn't faring too well. These attacks were much tricker than anything than she had encountered before. Sometimes the bones would slide in when she least expected them, or her soul landed on top of a bone on accident. On one occasion, her soul jumped too high, hitting a bone jutting out from the top.

When the next attack began, her soul was struck right off the bat, sending her another burst of pain.

Frisk shivered. It seemed that she was going to collapse any second now. She was definitely going to eat something after this attack—

Her soul struck another bone, sending her to the ground. Ouch.

The child winced in pain. The floor was cold, but… she couldn't get up.

It hurt so much.

* * *

 _(HOLD ON, YOU MIGHT WANT TO PAUSE THE MUSIC FOR A SECOND HERE.)_

* * *

It was a good thing that Papyrus remembered to decrease the power of his attacks as the human's health fell, since as his flower friend had said, he didn't want to beat up the human too much.

As the child crumpled to the floor, he ended the fight.

"HA!" Papyrus shouted, approaching the child's body. "YOU'RE TOO WEAK! NOW THAT YOU CAN'T RESIST, I WILL EASILY ABLE TO CAPTURE YOU!"

The child did not move.

Papyrus nudged the child with the tip of his boot. "HUMAN? HUMAN…"

He didn't get a response.

"THIS IS THE PART WHERE YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE QUIVERING IN FEAR OR SOMETHING," the skeleton stated. "BUT I GUESS THIS WORKS TOO!"

Papyrus picked up the child, slinging her over his shoulder.

"WOWIE! THIS IS GOING SO SMOOTHLY!" he said with a grin.

Still, Frisk did not respond.

"NOW, HUMAN!" the skeleton shouted. "I WILL NOW SEND YOU TO THE CAPTURE ZONE! OR, AS SANS CALLS IT… OUR GARAGE?"

He took off, holding tightly onto the child.

"YOU'RE IN THE DOGHOUSE NOW! NYEH HEH HEH!"

* * *

It was only after Papyrus left her "prison" when the child began to stir again.

Everything still hurt.

The child rose up, taking a seat on the floor. She took the bag off from her shoulder, looking for something to eat. Soon, she pulled out a cinnamon roll, beginning to munch down on it. Quickly, the ache faded away.

Frisk let out a sigh of relief. Much better.

Wearily, the child observed her surroundings. She appeared to be in some wooden room, or a shack of sorts. It smelled of dust, dampness, and dog food.

A cushion was on the ground, but it seemed to be too small to sleep in. Next to it sat a bowl of dry kibble and a squeaky chew toy.

"Woof," she flatly stated.

A note sat on the floor. She reached over for it and picked it up.

"SORRY, I HAVE TO LOCK YOU IN THE GUEST BEDROOM UNTIL UNDYNE ARRIVES. UNTIL THEN, FEEL FREE TO MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME! REFRESHMENTS AND ACCOMMODATIONS HAVE BEEN PROVIDED."

"-NYEHFULLY YOURS, PAPYRUS."

The child glanced up from the note, seeing that a set of bars blocked her way from the room's exit. Well, they would have, if the space between the bars didn't seem to be a little wide.

On the other side of the bars, off in the corner, sat a short, stocky figure. He tore his gaze away from the ground to face the child.

"hey, what's up?" Sans greeted.

Frisk exhaustedly waved hello. "Hi."

"you're probably wondering what i'm doing here," the skeleton continued. "papyrus asked me to keep watch over you, so you don't escape or something."

He turned away from the child. "he's tough, isn't he?"

She nodded, wearing a frown on her face.

"anyways, this job sure is tiring," Sans remarked. "i might need to take a rest. and it would be a shame if the human escaped while i did that, if you know what i'm saying."

"But what about Papyrus?" Frisk asked.

Sans's attention turned back to her. "hmm? oh, right. yeah, he's probably going to try to recapture you. are you ready for a rematch?"

"I don't want to fight him again," she lamented. "What am I supposed to do?"

"don't worry about it, i think he's already warmed up to you a little. just give him some more time."

"Okay…"

While Frisk continued to stare at the floor, she realized that there was something that didn't make sense.

"Why are you helping me?" she asked. "Don't you want him to capture me, because… he's your brother?"

A response didn't arrive for a while.

"well, i have plenty of reasons," Sans eventually stated. "but something tells me that my brother would be better off with a friend. after all, i think he's feeling rather _bonely…_ so, it would be great if you could play along for a little longer."

Frisk nodded. "Yeah. I will."

"by the way, one more thing," Sans added. "if i hear that you hurt my brother…"

He gazed away from from the child.

"well, _don't_. got it?"

"Got it."

"alright. i knew i could trust ya."

Sans leaned back, placing his arms behind his head. Slowly, his eyesockets shut, until he was fast asleep.

After a moment, Frisk stood up from her spot on the floor, slinging her bag onto her back.

The bars were much too wide to stop her, so she headed right through them to the exit. With her determination, she pushed the door open and stepped into the cold.

* * *

Papyrus took a triumphant stroll through Snowdin Town. Now that he had captured a human, he felt like he was on the top of the world.

…That is, until he noticed Sans standing around.

Furiously, Papyrus marched up to his brother.

"SANS! SHOULDN'T YOU BE WATCHING THE HUMAN?"

Sans put on a sheepish expression. "yeah, about that… they got away while I wasn't looking."

"WAIT, WHAT!?"

Papyrus began to yell, drawing the attention of everyone who happened to be nearby. "SANS! WHY WEREN'T YOU LOOKING!?"

"all i did was close my eyes for a moment," Sans replied. "when i opened them, they were gone."

"THAT'S CALLED NAPPING, SANS!"

"eh, you can call it whatever."

Papyrus turned around in alarm, placing his hands on his head.

"OH NO! SHE MUST BE VERY LOST! I MUST FIND HER BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!"

The taller skeleton dashed off, going on a search for the human. Nearby, the residents of Snowdin watched on, unsure of what was going on.

Sans stood in place, hands still in the pockets of his jacket.

"huh. the human's a she. the more you know."

* * *

Frisk trod through the snow, heading back towards the edge of town. She looked ahead of her, but there wasn't anyone there.

She heard a voice from behind her.

"OH… WHERE COULD THAT HUMAN HAVE GONE… WAIT, IT'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!"

The child spun around. "Papyrus?"

Unfortunately, she spun around a little too fast. And lost her balance.

Fortunately, Papyrus was close enough to grab and hold on to. She held on extra tight, since falling into the snow wasn't fun the first time.

"HELLO!" he greeted, wearing a huge smile. "I WAS WORRIED THAT YOU HAD GOTTEN LOST! IT SURE IS A RELIEF TO KNOW THAT YOU'RE RIGHT HERE…"

He looked down, finding that the child had wrapped both arms around his waist. It wasn't helping the the child was burying her head into his body… or at least tried to, since he was wearing a battle body.

"W-WAIT, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? A-ARE YOU… ARE YOU _FLIRTING_ WITH ME!?"

Frisk let go of him and backed away, suddenly embarrassed. "Uhh… umm…"

"SO YOU FINALLY REVEAL YOUR ULTIMATE FEELINGS!" Papyrus announced. "W-WELL! I'M A SKELETON WITH VERY HIGH STANDARDS! STANDARDS THAT YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY HOPE TO ACHIEVE!"

Frisk's head slumped, her hands fiddling together out of cluelessness. "Oh… if that's the case, I'm sorry…"

Papyrus's mouth gaped open in shock.

"OH NO!" he cried. "THAT HUMILITY! IT REMINDS ME OF… MYSELF! YOU'RE MEETING ALL MY STANDARDS!"

His eyes began to shift around confusedly.

"I GUESS THIS MEANS I HAVE TO GO ON A DATE WITH YOU…?"

"What!?"

Her cheeks were burning now. She didn't know how to respond, or what to think: she had never expected someone to seriously ask her out on a date, especially while she was so young.

Nervously, Frisk spoke up. "P-Papyrus, I—"

"LET'S DATE L-LATER!" Papyrus cut her off, setting the idea aside. "AFTER I…"

Something occurred to him.

"...WAIT A SECOND!" he exclaimed. "HOW DID YOU GET HERE!? I THOUGHT IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO ESCAPE FROM MY ESCAPE-PROOF CAPTURE ZONE!"

"Well…"

The skeleton backed away further, furthering the gap between the two of them. "OH, NO MATTER! YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO ESCAPE! I'LL HAVE TO RECAPTURE YOU!"

And so, the fight began again.

* * *

Hiding behind a tree, Sans watched what was going on. He was left a little clueless by what had just happened.

"huh," he commented. "i guess that she's being… a bit _frisky._ "

He turned to no one in particular with a wink.

* * *

 _(HEY, YOU STILL HAVE THE MUSIC, RIGHT?)_

* * *

The battle began as before: Papyrus used his blue attack again and began the onslaught of bones.

During one of his attacks, he absentmindedly dropped a bag and pulled out a container labelled "Bone Cologne." He dipped his fingers into the container and rubbed them on the side of his head.

"What are you doing?" Frisk asked.

"I'VE NEVER ACTUALLY TRIED OUT THESE FRAGRANCES, SINCE I'VE NEVER GONE ON A DATE BEFORE," Papyrus explained, taking a few more things out from his bag. "SO I'M DABBING THEM BEHIND MY EARS! I HAVE MARINARA SAUCE, MTT-BRAND ANIME POWDER, MTT-BRAND ATTRACTION SLIME, AND UMM… IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE I LABELLED THIS ONE!"

Papyrus was now holding several containers in his arms. "ANYWAYS, WANT TO TRY SOME?"

"Uhh… Papyrus?" the child noted. "You don't… have ears."

Papyrus dropped everything and patted the side of his head, where his ears should have been if he wasn't a skeleton. He then used both hands to pat his head, with an expression of increasing astonishment on his face.

"WELL THEN… " he said, swiftly placing the containers back into the bag and tossing the bag aside. "GOOD RIDDANCE!"

Frisk had improved her dodging a little, but the bones were still able to nick it on occasion.

However, she was a little more careful this time. Digging into her bag, she pulled out the two-pronged popsicle and broke it into two, regular popsicles.

Meanwhile, as Papyrus observed, he put on a frown.

* * *

"hey, bro."

"WHAT IS IT, SANS?"

"this popsicle is two-pronged…"

"YES… YES IT IS…"

"would that make it a _bi-sicle?_ "

"… _SANS!"_

"wait, it gets even better. let me break this in two…"

 _*Crack!*_

"now it's a pair of _uni-sicles._ "

" _NO, SANS! WHY!?"_

* * *

"Hey, Papyrus!"

Papyrus snapped out of the terrible memory. "WHAT?"

Frisk held out one of the popsicle halves to him. "You want one?"

"ARE YOU … OFFERING SOMETHING TO ME!?" Papyrus questioned. "WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF BATTLE, AND YOU WANT TO GIVE ME A SNACK?"

"Yeah!"

"A GENUINE ACT OF FRIENDSHIP…" Papyrus began in a trance, his eyes beginning to water… before he snapped out of it.

"NO… I STILL HAVE TO CAPTURE YOU! I MUST RESIST!"

"I'll save it for later, then."

She put the half that she had offered to Papyrus back into her bag and took a bite out of the other. She polished the rest off quickly, restoring her health and making the pain subside.

And then it was back to dodging.

* * *

As he used another attack, he started another monologue.

"I'LL HAVE LOTS OF ADMIRERS!" he exclaimed.

However, he began to consider something.

"BUT… WILL ANYONE LIKE ME AS SINCERELY AS YOU?" he asked to himself. "SOMEONE LIKE YOU IS REALLY RARE… PLUS, DATING MIGHT BE KIND OF HARD AFTER YOU'RE CAPTURED AND SENT AWAY."

Papyrus put on another frown, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead. This battle was going on much longer that he expected. Casting attack after attack had left a toll on him: he was beginning to feel a little tired… and frustrated.

"URGH… WHO CARES!" he shouted. "GIVE UP!

However, it seemed that the human wasn't going to give up any time soon. He would have to resort to _drastic measures._

"GIVE UP OR FACE MY SPECIAL ATTACK!" he warned, using another bone attack in the process.

He barked another warning as he prepared another attack. "YEAH! VERY SOON I WILL USE MY SPECIAL ATTACK!"

Frisk looked uneasy as he continued to announce that his special attack was coming. However, she wasn't planning to give up.

When the bone attack subsided, she dug into her bag and pulled out the other half of the popsicle, only to recall that it was Papyrus's and settled for another cinnamon roll instead.

Meanwhile, Papyrus declared a final warning. "THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO GIVE UP... BEFORE MY SPECIAL ATTACK!"

As the next attack ended, Frisk brought her arms up in some sort of defensive stance, bracing herself for something different.

"BEHOLD!" Papyrus cried. "MY SPECIAL ATTACK!"

The battle box expanded to reveal a dog sitting at the bottom, eagerly chomping down on a bone. The child lowered her stance, a giggle spilling from her mouth.

"WHAT THE HECK!?"

Papyrus noticed the bone in its mouth. "THAT'S MY SPECIAL ATTACK!"

Furiously, he turned his attention to the dog, whose eyes suddenly widened.

"HEY!" Papyrus yelled. "YOU STUPID DOG! DO YOU HEAR ME!? STOP MUNCHING ON THAT BONE!"

Smugly, the dog began to inch backwards into the box's right side, bone still in its mouth. Frisk began to laugh harder.

"HEY!" the skeleton shrieked. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? COME BACK HERE WITH MY SPECIAL ATTACK!"

But it was too late. The dog had disappeared from the battle box, taking Papyrus's special attack with it.

He let out a cry of intense irritation, then silently fumed for a few seconds.

"OH WELL," Papyrus admitted in defeat. "I'LL JUST USE A REALLY COOL REGULAR ATTACK."

* * *

Papyrus's magic heightened as he let out an exasperated sigh. "HERE'S AN ABSOLUTELY NORMAL ATTACK."

The normal attack began rather normally. As before, bones of varying sizes scrolled in from the sides.

It wasn't long, however, before things began to get a little strange. The dog slid in as well, bone still in its mouth.

Right afterwards, bones spelling out the words "Cool", then "Dude" slid in, followed by a solitary sunglasses-wearing bone on a skateboard. Her soul accidentally crashed into the last obstacle, knocking the poor bone off of its vehicle and taking damage in the process.

A huge crowd of countless bones slid in next. Her soul attempted to jump over them, getting higher… and higher… and higher…

As her soul went upwards with no signs of stopping, Frisk wondered what the point of this was… until she noticed the huge bone sliding in. It was much, much taller than any of the others that preceded it.

Right after passing over the bone, her soul began to fall, heading back towards the bottom again.

The child awaited another wave… but all she received was a very short bone inching in from the right. Her soul hopped right over it.

Well, that wasn't too bad. Strange, but not bad.

* * *

 _(STOP THE MUSIC HERE, DEAR READER.)_

* * *

Papyrus placed his hands on his knees, beads of sweat running down his skull. By this point, he was exhausted.

"WELL…!" he muttered, breathing heavily. "IT'S CLEAR... YOU CAN'T DEFEAT ME! YEAH! I CAN SEE YOU SHAKING IN YOUR BOOTS!"

He raised the volume of his voice. "THEREFORE I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, ELECT TO GRANT YOU PITY!"

He stared intently at the human in front of him.

"I WILL SPARE YOU, HUMAN!" Papyrus exclaimed. "NOW'S YOUR CHANCE TO ACCEPT MY MERCY."

Frisk stared back at him, a smile appearing at last. No more fighting.

"I accept!"

"THEN, THAT'S SETTLED!"

As the box disappeared, Papyrus began to turn away from her.

"NYOO HOO HOO…" he lamented. "I CAN'T EVEN STOP SOMEONE AS WEAK AS YOU…"

"UNDYNE'S GOING TO BE DISAPPOINTED IN ME, I'LL NEVER JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD, AND… MY FRIEND QUANTITY WILL REMAIN STAGNANT!"

A sad moan spilled from his mouth.

Papyrus seemed to be down in the dumps, so Frisk dug into her bag and pulled out the popsicle that she was saving for him.

"Hey," she said, slowly approaching with the popsicle in her hand.

Papyrus turned around. "YES, HUMAN?"

"I want to be your friend."

Papyrus was shocked, and he didn't make an effort to hide it.

"REALLY!? EVEN AFTER ALL THAT, YOU WANT TO BE FRIENDS WITH ME?"

She nodded.

Papyrus thought over it for a few seconds. "WELL THEN…"

He soon made his decision. "I GUESS I CAN MAKE AN ALLOWANCE FOR YOU!"

He walked over and took the popsicle from the child's hand, immediately storing it for later use.

"WOWIE!" the skeleton cried out with excitement. "WE HAVEN'T EVEN HAD OUR FIRST DATE, AND I'VE ALREADY MANAGED TO HIT THE FRIEND ZONE!"

"WHO KNEW THAT ALL I NEEDED TO MAKE PALS WAS TO… GIVE PEOPLE AWFUL PUZZLES AND THEN FIGHT THEM?"

He was a little confused by this lesson, but whatever worked works.

"I HEREBY GRANT YOU PERMISSION TO PASS THROUGH!" Papyrus exclaimed, gesturing the path leading to the beyond.

Frisk stared into the distance. What lay ahead of her intimidated her: it was dark and snow-less, far from the comforting lights of Snowdin. Besides, she was still a little tired…

She turned around and began to head back to town.

 _"HUMAN!"_ Papyrus called out. "ARE YOU IN NEED OF ASSISTANCE?"

He dashed over to Frisk. Reaching for her waist, he picked up the child and lifted her over his head.

"Woah!"

Before she could react, Frisk found herself seated on top of Papyrus's shoulders. He grasped around her ankles, to prevent her from falling off.

She began to laugh. Being seated so high up, having a better view of the world around her… this was actually kinda fun.

Papyrus walked all the way back to Snowdin with the child on his shoulders, wearing a huge smile and taking extra care to make sure that his new friend would stay in place.

* * *

Deep within Snowdin Forest was an entrance of a large, purple building. It was always locked, so not many people paid it any mind. For most, it was merely just an artifact of the distant past.

Sans walked down the long, empty path leading up to it, eventually reaching the lone door. He raised his hand up from the pocket of his coat and thumped it against the door a few times.

"knock, knock."

No response.

"hmm… not in the mood for jokes, huh? that's alright. i wasn't really in the mood either."

Sans paused for a moment before continuing.

"well, i've kept my end of the promise so far. the human's doing fine."

The skeleton's pupils flickered for a second. "she's hasn't died at all, although she has come pretty close."

"but i know papyrus," he stated. "he wouldn't kill anyone _on purpose."_

Still no response.

Sans's gaze turned back to the door. "you do remember my brother, right? he's getting along with her pretty well. he says that they're going to go on a 'date' soon, or something like that."

He laughed to himself.

"to be honest, seeing papyrus so happy… it's nice to see. the human's having a lot of fun too. i suppose i have you to thank for that, huh?"

Nothing from the other side.

"well, i guess i don't have much else to say," Sans concluded. "and it doesn't seem that you do either."

He walked off, taking a shortcut back to Snowdin.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Monster Kid was made male to balance out making the other characters with ambiguous genders female, namely both Frisk and a human that had fell into the underground earlier.**

 **So, the Papyrus fight. Silly? Yes. A little dumb? Probably. Do I care? Not really.**

 **Finally, Flowey really wouldn't add much to this chapter, so I went with something else.**

 **Next time: skeleton dates. That is all I need to say.**


	8. Dating Start!

Frisk woke up in the Snowed Inn.

There was a note located next to the bed. She turned on the light and read it.

"HUMAN! WELCOME TO YOUR ROOM, COURTESY OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS!"

"DON'T WORRY ABOUT PAYING: THE REALLY NICE LADY LET YOU STAY FOR FREE ONCE I EXPLAINED THE SITUATION. SHE ALWAYS GIVES ME A LOLLIPOP AND A PAT ON THE HEAD."

"ENJOY YOUR REST, COURTESY OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS!"

—NYEH HEH HEH, PAPYRUS

P.S.: "DON'T FORGET TO COME BACK AND HAVE THAT DATE! HEAD TO THE LARGE HOUSE AT THE EDGE OF TOWN!"

Oh right, the date.

She knew pretty much nothing about dating. Then again, Papyrus didn't seem like the person who knew a lot about dating, either.

But she knew that at least she should look nicer than usual. It's the thought that counts.

She brushed her fingers through her hair. Her hair had always been cut short just above the shoulders for as long as she could remember to minimize the maintenance that longer hair demanded.

She looked around the room for a mirror, but couldn't find one. Oh well. Frisk assumed that she looked okay on that front.

Now what should she wear?

She recalled something that she had. She pulled something out from one of the pockets in her backpack.

The dress that Toriel had given her had been neatly folded for her. She unfolded it and held it up. Now that she had a closer look, it reminded her more of a robe than a dress.

It looked big enough so that she could wear it over her regular clothes. After all, it was still cold outside.

Frisk took off her coat and put the dress on. It turned out that she was right; it did fit.

The child rolled up the legs of her trousers to just below her knees, to give the immediate impression that she wasn't wearing trousers under a dress. That wouldn't look very reasonable.

She readjusted the ribbon in her hair, put her coat back on, grabbed her bag, hopped into her shoes, and left the hotel room.

* * *

Meanwhile, Papyrus was hard at work in his house, preparing for the date.

"THE SPAGHETTI IS READY!" he cried, taking a steaming plate of pasta out from the microwave.

Sans was sitting disinterestedly on the couch.

"papyrus, you've microwaved that same plate of spaghetti for the fourth time in the last hour," he commented.

"I AM SIMPLY BEING PREPARED!" Papyrus exclaimed. "THE HUMAN COULD ARRIVE FOR OUR DATE AT ANY MINUTE!"

The skeleton placed the plate of spaghetti into a box. He rewrapped the box, ran upstairs, and hid the gift into his closet.

Sans chuckled. Papyrus was really serious about this date thing, despite never having gone on one before.

Papyrus ran out the door to wait for the human, for the fourth time in the last hour.

* * *

As Frisk approached Papyrus's house, she noticed that Papyrus was standing outside. Upon noticing her, the skeleton beamed.

"SO YOU CAME BACK TO HAVE A DATE WITH ME!" he exclaimed once Frisk was in speaking range. "I'LL HAVE TO TAKE YOU SOMEPLACE REALLY SPECIAL…"

Papyrus ran towards the center of Snowdin Town. "A PLACE I LIKE TO SPEND A LOT OF TIME!"

Frisk tried to catch up to him, but as he passed the library, he pulled off a u-turn and ran back towards the edge of town.

The skeleton dashed all the way back to his house and stopped. "MY HOUSE!"

"THOUGH I GUESS IT'S TECHNICALLY SANS'S HOUSE TOO. BUT I PREFER NOT TO DISCUSS HIS PART OF IT.

Papyrus cringed. "HIS ROOM IS… IT'S LIKE ANOTHER WORLD! A WORLD WHERE THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO VACUUM."

And with the end of that thought, he opened the door and leaped inside.

Frisk shrugged and followed him.

* * *

"WELCOME TO SCENIC MY HOUSE!" Papyrus exclaimed. "ENJOY AND TAKE YOUR TIME!"

Frisk took off her coat and looked around. It looked even bigger from the inside. The ground floor contained two rooms, a living room and a kitchen. There were two rooms upstairs, presumably for Papyrus and Sans.

"How do you have such a big house?" Frisk asked.

"BECAUSE WE LIVE IN AN ICY WASTELAND, THE RENT'S CHEAP," Papyrus explained. "MY BROTHER PAYS FOR IT."

This surprised Frisk, considering how lazy Sans was. "Where does he get the money?"

"OH, THAT'S SIMPLE." Papyrus began. He thought about it for a second, then he shrugged.

"IT'S A MYSTERY."

The skeleton then threw his hands up into the air, gesturing to the various things in his house. "ANYWAYS, FEEL FREE TO LOOK AROUND!"

* * *

Frisk visited the kitchen first. Papyrus noticed that she was heading towards the fridge.

"AH-HA!" he shouted. "INTERESTED IN MY FOOD MUSEUM?"

Papyrus ran into the kitchen to join her. "PLEASE. PERUSE MY CULINARY ARTSHOW."

Frisk opened the fridge and noticed that half of the fridge was filled with containers all labelled "spaghetti."

"GREAT FRIDGE, ISN'T IT?"

She looked to the other half and noticed it contained nothing but an empty bag of chips. The bag had been labelled "Popato Chisps."

"OH, WE SHARE THE FRIDGE," Papyrus explained. "THAT'S SANS'S SIDE! I'M NOT SURE WHERE THE CHIPS CAME FROM."

Papyrus continued as Frisk closed the fridge. "HE MOSTLY EATS AT GRILLBY'S THOUGH. IT'S DARK AND FULL OF GREASE.

He gazed into the distance. "PURGATORY OF FRIES... HAMBURGER ABYSS... ANYWAYS, MY BROTHER PRACTICALLY LIVES HERE. BUT I'M TOO REFINED FOR THAT GREASEHOLE."

Frisk looked to the sink next, which was unusually tall. A confused expression graced her face.

"IMPRESSED?" Papyrus noted. "I INCREASED THE HEIGHT OF MY SINK. NOW I CAN FIT MORE BONES UNDER IT! TAKE A LOOKSY!"

He opened the door of the tall cabinet below the sink. He was surprised to find that not only were most of his bones missing, a small white dog was sitting in there, munching on one of them. "WHAT!?"

The dog hopped right out of the cabinet, bone still in its mouth.

"CATCH THAT MEDDLING CANINE!" Papyrus cried.

Frisk ran after it, but the dog was too agile. It ran right out through the door, leaving Papyrus's house behind.

" _CURSES!"_

One of the doors upstairs opened. A few mockingly somber notes from a brass musical instrument rung through the air before the door was closed again.

" _SANS!_ " the taller skeleton yelled. "STOP PLAGUING MY LIFE WITH INCIDENTAL MUSIC!"

"What instrument was he playing?" Frisk asked.

"A TROM _BO_ -" Papyrus began. He then realized it was a pun, letting out a loud groan.

"ANYWAYS, WHY DON'T YOU EXPLORE THE REST OF THE KITCHEN?"

Frisk went back inside and looked at their oven, which contained had a stove-top. Its surface contained the charred remains of noodles and marinara sauce, and was dented in a couple of places.

She then opened the oven and noticed a single baking tin sitting there.

"MY BROTHER ALWAYS GOES OUT TO EAT." Papyrus noted. "BUT RECENTLY, HE TRIED 'BAKING' SOMETHING."

"IT WAS LIKE A QUICHE," he recalled, "BUT FILLED WITH A SUGARY, NON-EGG SUBSTANCE. HOW ABSURD!"

"Like a pie?" Frisk asked. She remembered Toriel's delicious butterscotch-cinammon pie. And the snail pies, too.

The skeleton frowned. "A PIE? NEVER HEARD OF IT!"

"Did it turn out well?" she asked.

"I LEFT AS HE WAS BAKING IT," Papyrus said. "WHEN I CAME BACK, SANS HAD TAKEN IT SOMEWHERE ELSE. THE HOUSE SMELLED ALL BUTTERY AND SWEET, THOUGH!"

That was interesting information. Maybe there was more to Sans than she had thought.

* * *

Frisk exited the kitchen and entered the living room. Papyrus followed.

She pointed to a rock sitting on a table. It had been covered with sprinkles.

"THAT'S MY BROTHER'S PET ROCK," the skeleton clarified. "HE ALWAYS FORGETS TO FEED IT! AS USUAL, I HAVE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY."

Maybe it wouldn't be best to mention that pet rocks didn't need to be fed.

Frisk then noticed a dirty sock with a series of notes on it. Some were written in Papyrus's scratchy handwriting, but the handwriting on others were small and cartoony. She realized that it was a conversation via notes between Papyrus and Sans.

* * *

"SANS! PLEASE PICK UP YOUR SOCK!"

"ok."

"DON'T PUT IT BACK DOWN! MOVE IT!"

"ok."

"YOU MOVED IT TWO INCHES! MOVE IT TO YOUR ROOM!"

"ok."

"AND DON'T BRING IT BACK!"

"ok."

"IT'S STILL HERE!"

"didn't you just say not to bring it back to my room?"

"FORGET IT!"

* * *

The notes ended there.

She then looked to the TV they had. Back at the orphanage, all they had was an old small, clunky box TV. All there was to watch was a few channels.

Papyrus's TV was more modern, as it was flatter and had a larger screen. It was in pretty good condition, too. Something like that must have been really expensive.

She pressed the power button. The TV booted up and emitted a catchy tune.

"OOH, IT'S MY FAVORITE GAME SHOW!" Papyrus exclaimed.

The screen read "Stay tuned for a new program — MTT."

"WHAT!?" the skeleton spoke in shock. "IT'S USUALLY BETTER THAN THIS! THIS IS JUST A BAD EPISODE! DON'T JUDGE ME!"

Frisk had recalled that some of the things that Papyrus planned to dab behind his "ears" were MTT-brand.

"Papyrus," she asked, "what does MTT stand for?"

"THAT'S METTATON!" Papyrus shouted with glee. "THE STAR OF THE UNDERGROUND! HE'S MY FAVORITE SEXY RECTANGLE!"

"What does 'sexy' mean?" Frisk asked, having recalled that a younger kid had used that word, and was then promptly placed into timeout.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Papyrus admitted. "EVERYONE ON THE INTERNET CALLS HIM THAT!"

Fair enough.

The screen wasn't changing at all, so Frisk went ahead and turned it off. The child then took a seat on the nearby couch. As she fell backwards into it, it made a jangling sound. A few loose coins flew out. Other than that, it was a pretty comfy couch.

Papyrus joined her on the other side of the couch. He pointed to a painting of a bone located upstairs.

"SEE THAT? IT'S A CLASSIC IMAGE. IT ALWAYS REMINDS ME OF WHAT'S IMPORTANT IN LIFE."

It was well-made, but other than that, it wasn't very interesting.

They sat there for a minute looking at it anyways before Frisk got back up.

* * *

Frisk decided to head upstairs.

She approached the door that was closer to the stairs. It was covered with many labels.

(NO GIRLS ALLOWED!) (NO BOYS ALLOWED!) (PAPYRUS ALLOWED.)

"THAT'S MY ROOM!" Papyrus exclaimed from downstairs. "IF YOU'VE FINISHED LOOKING AROUND, WE COULD GO IN AND…"

Papyrus realized that he wasn't really sure what happened next. "DO WHATEVER PEOPLE DO WHEN THEY DATE?"

"That sounds alright," Frisk replied.

Papyrus rushed upstairs and opened the door for her.

* * *

As she entered Papyrus's room, she looked around and nearly fell over in surprise.

Papyrus had a car in the corner of his room. It wasn't very big, and it wasn't likely that it was an actual car, but… it was still a car in the middle of the underground, where she didn't expect one to be.

She took a backwards step away from it. "What's a car doing in your room?"

"THAT'S MY BED!" Papyrus explained. "IF I EVER GET TO THE SURFACE, I'D LIKE TO DRIVE DOWN A LONG HIGHWAY."

She approached the car and noticed that there were sheets and a pillow neatly placed inside of it.

"WIND IN MY HAIR…" the skeleton went on. "SUN ON MY SKIN…"

"You don't have either of those," Frisk pointed out.

Papyrus ignored her and continued. "OF COURSE, THAT'S JUST A DREAM. SO INSTEAD I CRUISE WHILE I SNOOZE… "

"I DON'T RECALL THE LAST TIME I DID THAT, THOUGH. I'VE BEEN TOO BUSY."

Now that the car issue was explained, Frisk took a look around at the rest of the neatly organized room. It was pretty impressive.

Something unusual on the table caught her eye, though.

"Isn't that the popsicle I gave you?" Frisk pointed out. It had been placed in a makeshift trophy stand.

Papyrus dramatically gestured to the treat. "IT'S A GIFT FROM _YOU_ , MY FRIEND! I'M CHERISHING IT!"

Frisk wondered if it would ever melt. Maybe it was also magic, just like the snowman piece. Well, it seemed that Papyrus wasn't going to be eating it any time soon.

The popsicle trophy was joined by various action figures. As Frisk pointed to them, Papyrus picked one up and held it in his outstretched hand.

"AH, YES, ACTION FIGURES. A GREAT REFERENCE FOR THEORETICAL BATTLE SCENARIOS."

He gave the figure to Frisk to give her a closer look. It looked like something she had seen on television once.

"HMM… WHAT ELSE CAN I SHOW YOU… " Papyrus pondered. "AHA!"

The skeleton then ran up to the bookcase and grabbed a few books to show to her.

"THIS BOOK'S ONE OF MY FAVORITES." He placed one of them in Frisk's hands.

The title read "Advanced Puzzle Construction for Critical Minds." She opened to a random page and noticed it was was heavily marked with Papyrus's notes. She wasn't able to make out any of them, however.

Papyrus handed her another book. "THIS NEXT BOOK'S ANOTHER ONE OF MY FAVORITES."

The title read "Peek-A-Boo with Fluffy Bunny." She opened this one and found that it was a brightly-colored picture book, just like the ones at the orphanage.

"THE ENDING ALWAYS GETS ME," he innocently explained.

She handed the figure and books back to Papyrus, who carefully put them back into their spots, and headed towards the computer.

It was claimed that one of the caretakers had a computer in her room, but otherwise there weren't any computers in the orphanage. There were computers at school, but the children weren't allowed to use them very often, as the world wide web was very distracting.

The computer was open to a social media site called Undernet.

"THE INTERNET!" Papyrus spoke. "I'M QUITE POPULAR THERE. I'M JUST A DOZEN AWAY FROM A DOUBLE DIGIT FOLLOWER COUNT!

Math was never Frisk's strongest subject, but she knew that something wasn't adding up.

"OF COURSE, FAME HAS A STEEP PRICE," he continued. "A JEALOUS TROLL HAS BESIEGED MY ONLINE PERSONA. ALWAYS SENDING ME BAD PUNS IN A GOOFY FONT…"

She had a pretty good idea of who this "troll" was.

Frisk noticed a box of magical bones near the entrance of the room. Most were white, but a few of them were light blue.

"HEY, THOSE ARE ALL THE ATTACKS I USED ON YOU DURING OUR FIGHT. GREAT MEMORIES, HUH?"

She had a great time… barring the part where she nearly died, of course. The child frowned, but decided to leave that part of the memory in the past. She and Papyrus were friends now!

"SO, UM…" Papyrus spoke. "IF YOU'VE SEEN EVERYTHING… DO YOU WANT TO START THE DATE?"

"Yeah!" Frisk exclaimed.

"OKAY! DATING START!"

* * *

Papyrus and Frisk stood in the center of the room.

"HERE WE ARE!" Papyrus began. "ON OUR DATE!"

"TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH," Papyrus unconfidently admitted, "I'VE ACTUALLY NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE."

His face lighted up. "BUT DON'T WORRY! YOU CAN'T SPELL 'PREPARED' WITHOUT SEVERAL LETTERS FROM MY NAME!"

Well, he wasn't wrong.

Papyrus pulled out a pocket-sized book from behind his back. "I SNAGGED AN OFFICIAL DATING RULEBOOK FROM THE LIBRARY! WE'RE READY TO HAVE A GREAT TIME!"

He held the rulebook up to his face, perusing its contents. "LET'S SEE…"

"STEP ONE... PRESS THE [C] KEY ON YOUR KEYBOARD FOR 'DATING HUD.'"

Papyrus walked over to his computer and pressed a key on the keyboard a few times. All he managed to do was to type a fews Cs into a text box.

"HUH… MUST BE BROKEN. I THINK WE'RE READY TO SKIP TO STEP TWO!"

He went back to the center of the room and brought the rulebook back up. "STEP TWO... ASK THEM ON A DATE."

"AHEM! FRISH-" he began.

"Frisk," the girl corrected.

"FRISK!" he corrected himself. "I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL GO ON A DATE WITH YOU!"

"I accept!" she eagerly replied.

"R-REALLY? _WOWIE!_ " Papyrus cried, with a blush on his cheeks. "I GUESS THAT MEANS IT'S TIME FOR PART THREE!"

"STEP THREE... PUT ON NICE CLOTHES TO SHOW YOU CARE!"

Papyrus pondered this step for a few seconds before coming to a realization. "WAIT A SECOND. 'WEAR CLOTHING'?"

He lowered the rulebook and stared intently at the child.

"THAT DRESS…" Papyrus observed. "YOU'RE WEARING CLOTHING RIGHT NOW! NOT ONLY THAT… EARLIER TODAY, YOU WERE ALSO WEARING CLOTHING!"

"Umm…" This was all Frisk could manage.

"NO... COULD IT BE?" the skeleton cried in disbelief. "YOU'VE WANTED TO DATE ME FROM THE VERY BEGINNING!?"

"Uhh… yeah!" Frisk didn't want to find out what would happen if she said no.

Papyrus put on an intense expression of shock. His bones began to tremble.

"NO!" Papyrus exclaimed. "YOU PLANNED IT ALL! YOU'RE WAY BETTER AT DATING THAN I AM!"

"N-NOOOO!" he cried. 'YOUR DATING POWER! IT'S TOO STRONG!"

But soon, a smile of confidence crept up the front of his skull.

"NYEH! DON'T THINK YOU'VE BESTED ME YET!"

Sweat flew off the side of his head. "I, THE _GREAT PAPYRUS_ , HAVE NEVER BEEN BEATEN AT DATING, AND I NEVER WILL! I CAN EASILY KEEP UP WITH YOU!"

From his expression, Frisk could tell that Papyrus had come up with a brilliant plan. Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

"YOU SEE, I, TOO, CAN WEAR CLOTHING!" he elaborated. "IN FACT… I ALWAYS WEAR MY "SPECIAL" CLOTHES UNDERNEATH MY REGULAR CLOTHES! JUST IN CASE SOMEBODY HAPPENS TO ASK ME ON A DATE!"

"BEHOLD!" Papyrus rushed into his closet, closing the door behind him.

Frisk took this opportunity to take a deep breath. Were dates supposed to be this tense?

When the skeleton emerged, he was wearing his special clothes: a shirt reading "Cool Dude," shoulder pads that resembled basketballs, stylish sneakers accompanied by tall socks, and a baseball cap turned backwards for coolness points.

The child was absolutely speechless.

"NYEH! WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MY SECRET STYLE!?" Papyrus exclaimed. "LOVE IT OR HATE IT?"

Frisk managed a few words. "I love it!"

"NO!" he cried, bones fiercely shaking. "A GENUINE COMPLIMENT! HOW DO YOU KEEP DOING THIS!?"

Papyrus's confidence would only return, however, stronger than ever. "HOWEVER… "

"YOU DON'T TRULY UNDERSTAND THE HIDDEN POWER OF THIS OUTFIT!" he taunted. "THEREFORE…"

Papyrus pointed dramatically at her. "WHAT YOU JUST SAID IS INVALID!"

The child could only stare in awe at this turn of events.

"THIS DATE WON'T ESCALATE ANY FURTHER!" the skeleton cried.

Papyrus gestured to his outfit. "...UNLESS YOU FIND THE SECRET TO MY STYLE! BUT THAT WON'T HAPPEN!"

Frisk inspected the skeleton's outfit. She pointed to his shoes.

"HUMAN SOULS ARE STRONGER THAN MONSTER SOULS…" Papyrus remarked. "BUT THE SOLES OF OUR SHOES ON THE OTHER HAND… ARE ABOUT THE SAME."

It took a moment for Frisk to realize that it was a play on words.

"BUT THAT'S NOT MY SECRET. KEEP LOOKING!"

Frisk scanned the outfit again and pointed to his backwards hat.

"MY HAT...?" Papyrus said. "MY HAT. MY HAT!"

Papyrus tore the hat off, revealing a wrapped gift on his head. Frisk didn't bother to ask how he was able to conceal it so well.

"W-WELL THEN... YOU FOUND MY SECRET! I SUPPOSE I HAVE NO CHOICE!"

"What is it?" Frisk asked.

"IT'S A PRESENT…" he replied. "A PRESENT JUST FOR YOU!"

Papyrus shoved the box into her hands. "GO AHEAD! OPEN IT!"

She slowly undid the bow and unwrapped the gift. Upon opening it, she found that it was a plate of elongated pasta covered in tomato sauce. She could not help but grin.

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS?" Papyrus asked.

"It's spaghetti!" she enthusiastically replied.

"RIGHT!" he exclaimed.

But then he curled his left hand into a fist and pumped it into the air. "YET _OH-SO WRONG_!"

Frisk was surprised by this display of such boldness. "Oh… what is it?"

Papyrus gestured to the dish. "THOUGH THIS APPEARS TO BE SPAGHETTI, THIS AIN'T ANY PLAIN OL' PASTA! THIS IS AN ARTISAN'S WORK!"

He continued in a illustrious voice. "SILKEN SPAGHETTI, FINELY AGED IN AN OAKEN CASK… THEN COOKED BY ME, _MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS_!"

He fiercely pointed to her. "HUMAN! IT'S TIME TO END THIS! THERE'S NO WAY THIS CAN GO ANY FURTHER!"

"HAVE A TASTE OF THE ULTIMATE DISH!"

Frisk took a huge whiff (it was usually a good idea before eating random things). She immediately regretted it, as her eyes were beginning to water. The smell was indescribable…

Well… no. The noodles smelled like grain that was was grown in the underground, turned into strands of spaghetti, then stirred ferociously, boiled and burned with an intense fury, lobbed against the walls over and over for amusement, covered in a sauce made of vegetables literally smashed into a paste, stored in the refrigerator for a few days, microwaved again and again until it was steaming hot, and placed to sit in a box to be served to her.

That description didn't help much, huh? Basically, it was indescribable.

"Uhh… " Frisk wasn't sure what to do next.

She wasn't a fan of the idea of shoving… whatever this was… into her mouth. On the other hand, if she refused, Papyrus might be disappointed.

She decided that it would be better to take a potential risk than a definite one.

She held out the plate of spaghetti back to Papyrus. "I think that you would enjoy having this spaghetti more than I would!"

Fortunately, Papyrus took the refusal quite well. "YOU'RE LETTING ME HAVE IT INSTEAD? BECAUSE YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE PASTA…"

"IMPOSSIBLE!" he overdramatically cried. "TAKING MY PRESENT AND TURNING IT AROUND ON ME!"

Perhaps he was taking it a little _too_ well.

 _"AUGH!"_ Papyrus screamed, his bones rattling violently.

 _"URRRGH!"_ He shook even more.

 _"NOOOOOOOO!"_ Papyrus crumpled onto the floor.

For a second there, Frisk thought she had done something wrong.

"Papyrus!" she called out. "Are you okay!?"

He did not respond for a moment. He appeared to be lost in thought. She placed the spaghetti on the ground next to him.

The skeleton's head turned to face the human. He gazed deep into her eyes.

"HUMAN," he remarked. "IT'S CLEAR NOW. YOU'RE MADLY IN LOVE WITH ME."

Frisk did like Papyrus a lot… yet she was baffled at what Papyrus had to say.

His breathing was heavy. "EVERYTHING YOU DO. EVERYTHING YOU SAY. IT'S ALL BEEN FOR MY SAKE."

"HUMAN… I WANT YOU TO BE HAPPY, TOO."

Papyrus got back up. "IT'S TIME FOR ME TO EXPRESS MY FEELINGS."

He hid his hands behind his back, looking down on her. "IT'S TIME THAT I TOLD YOU."

"I, PAPYRUS…" he declared.

But Papyrus found that he had nothing to say. The words he wanted to say to her could not come out. "I… UM… "

Silence filled the room.

Papyrus decided to break it up. "BOY, IS IT HOT IN HERE OR IS IT JUST ME?"

Frisk was staring at him with concern, still waiting for him to continue. Yet Papyrus was unable to utter the words that described how he felt.

He eventually came to a realization.

"OH, SHOOT," Papyrus said, standing awkwardly. "HUMAN… FRISK… I… I'M SORRY."

"I DON'T LIKE YOU THE WAY YOU LIKE ME," he admitted. "ROMANTICALLY, I MEAN."

Frisk frowned. Was the date ending already?

"I MEAN, I TRIED VERY HARD TO!" he profusely apologized. "I THOUGHT THAT BECAUSE YOU FLIRTED WITH ME… THAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO GO ON A DATE WITH YOU. I MEAN… I THINK THAT'S HOW IT WORKS."

Frisk looked down at the ground, trying to hide the blush on her face. In retrospect, it was a little embarrassing.

"THEN, ON THE DATE, OUR FEELINGS WOULD BLOSSOM FORTH!" Papyrus cried, with great emotion in his voice. "I WOULD BE ABLE TO MATCH YOUR PASSION FOR ME! OUR FRIENDSHIP WOULD ONLY DELVE FURTHER INTO THE CHASM OF AFFECTION!"

Papyrus hung his head in guilt. "BUT ALAS... I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS… HAVE FAILED. I FEEL JUST THE SAME AS BEFORE."

Papyrus shamefully turned his eyes back to the child. "AND INSTEAD, BY DATING YOU, I HAVE ONLY DRAWN YOU DEEPER INTO YOUR INTENSE LOVE FOR ME!"

"A DARK PRISON OF PASSION," he described, "WITH NO ESCAPE."

His head hung down again. "HOW COULD I HAVE DONE THIS TO MY DEAR FRIEND...?"

As Papyrus sulked, he noticed a warm embrace wrap around his waist. He looked and noticed that the human was giving him a huge hug. A platonic one, of course.

"It's fine," Frisk said. "You're still the great Papyrus!"

"WAIT! YOU'RE RIGHT!" Papyrus spoke with confidence. "I CAN'T FAIL AT ANYTHING!"

The child let go and stood back with a smile, having achieved what she hoped to. Besides, skeletons weren't the most comfortable things to hug, anyways.

"FRISK!" he addressed. "I'LL HELP YOU THROUGH THESE TRYING TIMES! I'LL KEEP BEING YOUR COOL FRIEND…"

Papryus's eyes shifted around nervously. "… AND ACT LIKE THIS ALL NEVER HAPPENED."

"AFTER ALL, YOU ARE VERY GREAT. IT WOULD BE TRAGIC TO LOSE YOUR FRIENDSHIP."

"SO PLEASE… DON'T CRY BECAUSE I WON'T KISS YOU," Papyrus comforted. "BECAUSE, I DON'T EVEN HAVE LIPS."

As Frisk laughed, Papyrus couldn't help but to join in.

"AND HEY," the skeleton continued, "SOMEDAY, YOU'LL FIND SOMEONE AS GREAT AS ME."

He thought about that for a second.

"WELL, NO," he corrected himself. "THAT'S NOT TRUE. BUT I'LL HELP YOU SETTLE FOR SECOND BEST! _NYEH HEH HEH!_ "

Papyrus then had an idea. "BY THE WAY, DO YOU HAVE A PHONE?"

Frisk reached into her bag and pulled out the phone that Toriel gave her.

Papyrus scribbled down something on a piece of paper and handed it to her.

"GREAT! HERE'S MY PHONE NUMBER, IF YOU EVER NEED TO REACH ME. YOU CAN CALL ME ANY TIME! PLATONICALLY, OF COURSE."

"WELL, GOTTA GO! NYEH HEH HEH!"

Papyrus rushed back into the closet and got his battle body back on, then ran right out the door of his room.

* * *

Frisk turned her phone on and dialed the number on the slip of paper. It only took one ring before Papyrus picked up.

"WOW! IT ONLY TOOK YOU FOUR SECONDS TO CALL ME! YOU MUST BE VERY DESPERATE FOR MY HELP!"

"Well… yeah!"

"WELL! DO NOT FEAR! THIS IS PAPYRUS'S HOTFUL HELPLINE! JUST DESCRIBE YOUR LOCATION, AND I WILL DESCRIBE SOME HOT TIPS! SO, WHERE ARE YOU?"

"Oh, I'm still in your room."

"YOU'RE STILL IN MY ROOM!? HAVE YOU HEARD OF SOMETHING CALLED A... DOOR?"

"Well—"

"WAIT! DON'T WORRY! I'LL DRAW A DIAGRAM FOR YOU!"

"It's fine—"

"HOLD UP! I'M STILL DRAWING!"

Frisk laughed a little. "No really, I'm okay. Thanks, though!"

"OH, OKAY! FEEL FREE TO CALL ANYTIME, THEN!"

Click…

* * *

Frisk took one last look at Papyrus's room and left.

Now that the date had ended, Frisk took off the dress and neatly folded it to the best of her ability. She placed it back into her bag.

As she exited Papyrus's house, putting her coat back on in the process, she found that Papyrus was running up to her.

"OH! I NEARLY FORGOT!" Papyrus exclaimed. "I'LL GIVE YOU DIRECTIONS TO THE SURFACE!"

He pointed to the path leading to the beyond. "CONTINUE FORWARD UNTIL YOU REACH THE END OF THE CAVERN."

"THEN... WHEN YOU REACH THE CAPITAL, CROSS THE BARRIER. THAT'S THE MAGICAL SEAL TRAPPING US ALL UNDERGROUND."

"ANYTHING CAN ENTER THROUGH IT," he explained, "BUT NOTHING CAN EXIT… EXCEPT SOMEONE WITH A POWERFUL SOUL."

He pointed to Frisk. "...LIKE YOU!"

She thought of her little red soul in the battle box. It didn't strike her as powerful or strong.

"THAT'S WHY THE KING WANTS TO ACQUIRE A HUMAN!" he clarified. "HE WANTS TO OPEN THE BARRIER WITH SOUL POWER. THEN US MONSTERS CAN RETURN TO THE SURFACE!"

Papyrus thought for a moment, wondering if there was anything else that Frisk needed to know.

He recalled something. "OH, I ALMOST FORGOT TO TELL YOU…"

"TO REACH THE EXIT, YOU WILL HAVE TO PASS THROUGH THE KING'S CASTLE. YOU WILL HAVE TO MEET THE KING."

Frisk was not liking the sound of that.

"THE KING OF ALL MONSTERS…" he gravely spoke.

"HE IS… WELL…"

Papyrus spoke enthusiastically with a grin on his face. "HE'S A BIG FUZZY PUSHOVER! EVERYBODY LOVES THAT GUY!"

Well, she wasn't expecting that.

"I AM CERTAIN IF YOU JUST SAY…" he continued, "'EXCUSE ME, MR. DREEMURR... CAN I PLEASE GO HOME?', HE'LL GUIDE YOU RIGHT TO THE BARRIER HIMSELF!"

Yet she had a doubt that it wouldn't be that simple.

"ANYWAY, THAT'S ENOUGH TALKING!" Papyrus concluded. "I'LL BE AT HOME BEING A COOL FRIEND! FEEL FREE TO COME BY AND VISIT SOMETIME! NYEH HEH HEH!"

"I'll remember to call often!" Frisk promised.

And so Frisk left Snowdin behind, her goal set on reaching the barrier. After all, the underground was a bit dangerous for a human like her.

* * *

Frisk followed the river into a deeper part of the cavern. She noticed a large block of ice in it, floating along in the current.

She was leaving a friend behind, but she didn't feel sad. She could call him anytime.

A thought occurred to her. She recalled that she had Toriel's number, yet Toriel didn't tell her to call back. But… it was worth a shot.

She went into her contact list. She figured out that she could add Papyrus to her list, so she didn't have to keep pulling up his number, so she did.

The child selected Toriel's number in the newly expanded contact list and pressed the green button.

A few empty rings later, an automated voice greeted her. It said that the receiver of the call was unavailable at the moment, but it said that a caller could leave a message after the beep.

She decided to give this a try.

* * *

Toriel sat next to a patch of golden flowers. It was the very same one Frisk had fallen into when she had entered the Underground.

She pulled out her phone, as she noticed that it had been ringing. She wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone right now, though.

Toriel noticed that the caller had left a message. She opened it and held the phone to her ear.

"Hey, mom," a voice said. "I just wanted to let you know that I'm doing well. I've met a lot of nice people."

Toriel expressed a small smile. Frisk sounded so happy.

"Can you please call back when you have the time? Goodbye!"

The very brief message ended.

Toriel's joy didn't last for long. Soon, she was worrying over the child's safety again.

Her eyes turned to the patch of golden flowers.

"I let another one go…" she sadly admitted.

A silence filled the room.

"I am so sorry, my child…"

* * *

A flower popped out of the snow-covered ground. He looked around, seeing if Sans was nearby.

It didn't appear to be the case. Excellent!

So Flowey approached Papyrus from the front. The skeleton perked up upon seeing his friend.

"So, did my advice help at all?" the flower asked.

"YEAH!" Papyrus exclaimed. "IT WAS VERY GOOD ADVICE!"

"And now you have another friend!" Flowey complemented, adding in a cheery wink for good measure. "Isn't the ability to not accidentally kill people great?"

"…SURE?" Papyrus replied, a little confused by how Flowey had worded the situation.

"Can I ask a bit of a favor from you?" the talking flower said, with the continued guise of friendliness. "After all, you owe me one!"

"OKAY! WHAT IS IT?"

"I'm interested in the human, too," Flowey explained. "Let's just say I'm… watching over her."

He continued to grin while he spoke. "There are limitations, however. As a flower, there are places where I'm unable to go. Flowers don't grow well on some surfaces!"

He could already think of some places in Waterfall that he was unable to burrow to. Burrowing through stone with magic wasn't too much of a problem. Bridges, however, were a much different situation.

"That means I can't know everything about her that I need to."

Flowey looked directly at the skeleton. "Which is where you come in."

Papyrus was a little surprised. "HOW COME?"

"You're the person in the underground that Frisk seems to trust the most," Flowey remarked. "Besides someone else, of course, but let's leave her out of the running for now."

Flowey knew the type of person that Toriel was. She wouldn't be leaving the ruins to see Frisk any time soon.

"Anyways, that's quite the accomplishment you have there," he continued. "Good for you!"

"WHY, THANK YOU!" Papyrus proudly replied.

Flowey was well aware that Papyrus would gobble up flattery like a hungry mouse dashing towards a piece of cheese placed in a deadly mousetrap. This trait made the skeleton very useful.

The flower took the opportunity to elaborate further on what he was saying. "She's likely going to tell you things that no one else will know. Things that I should know as well."

"Since… you know, she's your friend, and I'm also your friend, then by extension I'm friends with her too."

This logic seemed to make sense to Papyrus, although it wasn't always true.

"If you learn anything interesting…" Flowey asked, "keep your pal informed, will ya?"

"ALRIGHT! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL HELP YOU!" the skeleton eagerly spoke.

If Papyrus was suspecting anything, he wasn't showing it.

"Thanks, pal!" And with that, Flowey retreated into the earth.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **The original plan was to shove the Papyrus date and the Grillby's part into a single chapter. However, the Papyrus date ended up being much longer than I had expected, because there was so much material I wanted to cover. So the other part will get its own chapter, too.**

 **As for the date itself… there isn't much to say. It's a crazy time here, just as it is in-game.**

 **Next time: Sans takes a break.**


	9. Premonition

The sound of rushing water was filling Frisk with determination.

The river went off in a sharp turn into a different direction. Frisk would have followed the river further, but there was no path to follow it further on, and swimming in a river that ran through a cold area of the underground wasn't a very great idea.

Plus, she didn't know how to swim in the first place. She had never learned how to.

So she continued on forward.

Frisk noticed that the monster kid from earlier was present, standing next to a pool of flowing water. When the kid noticed that she was approaching, he clumsily ran up to her.

"Yo, Frisk!" he exclaimed. "Are you sneaking out to see her, too?"

"See who?" she asked.

"You don't know!?" the monster kid replied. "I'm talking about Undyne, of course!"

That name sounded familiar. Papyrus had mentioned it a couple of times.

"She's the coolest!" the kid excitedly continued with a bright gleam in his eyes. "I wanna be just like her when I grow up!"

He sheepishly turned back to her. "Hey, by the way, don't tell my parents I'm here. Ha ha."

"Anyways, I'll see ya around!"

And the kid ran off, although he looked like he had a poor sense of balance.

As Frisk took a few steps onward in the direction he was heading, she heard a familiar voice.

"hiya."

Frisk turned to the direction of the voice and noticed that Sans was located at a sentry station nearby. It looked like he was bored.

"What are you doing here?" the child asked. "I thought your station was back in the forest."

The skeleton snickered. "what? haven't you seen a guy with two jobs before?"

"fortunately, two jobs means twice as many legally-required breaks," he explained, leaning back in his chair. "actually, i feel like going for one right now."

Sans then got up from his seat.

"i'm going to grillby's. wanna come? I can understand if you're a bit busy, though."

Frisk didn't have anything in particular to do, so she might as well go.

"Alright," she replied. "Let's go."

"well, if you insist…" Sans spoke, "i'll pry myself away from my work…"

Sans started walking off in the direction away from Snowdin, to Frisk's surprise.

"over here," the skeleton beckoned. "i know a shortcut."

Once Frisk got close, the skeleton held out a hand to her. She took ahold of it.

"close your eyes and follow along," he instructed.

The child shut her eyes. Hopefully Sans wouldn't lead her off a cliff or something like that.

The skeleton began to walk, taking her hand along with him, so Frisk followed.

A few steps later, Frisk felt the temperature around her drop. She took another step and heard the crunching of snow.

"you can open your eyes, now."

Frisk noticed that she was back at Snowdin, standing in front of Grillby's.

But… that was impossible. How Sans had done it, she had no idea.

"fast shortcut, huh?"

* * *

As they entered Grillby's, Frisk took a deep breath. The air around her was warm, which made for a nice change.

The aroma reminded her that she hadn't had a warm meal since she had left the ruins. In fact… she hadn't had anything at all since the battle with Papyrus. Her stomach growled.

Meanwhile, Sans was greeting the various people sitting down at the tables and the booths. They greeted him like a frequent acquaintance, which was likely the case.

Frisk noticed the dogs at the table playing card games. She recognized them all from her adventures between the exit of the ruins and Snowdin Town.

Doggo, Dogamy, Dogaressa, and the small dog wearing the huge armor were all sitting at one table, while the dog with the extending neck was sitting by its lonesome playing a card game by itself.

The hooded dog couple noticed something peculiar as they sniffed the air.

"Something smells weird…" Dogamy started.

"Like a human!" Dogaressa concluded.

Frisk looked around, noting that her "puppy smell" had been lost. If worst came to worst, she could just run outside and roll around in the snow again. Or maybe she could just cover herself in something greasy.

The large armored dog looked up from its cards. Upon noticing that the child was present, it let out a few yips of excitement.

The dog playing a game by itself turned around due to the commotion. Once it noticed the presence of the human, it also got very excited. It eagerly wagged its tail and made a noise imitating a plane take-off, somehow.

"Oh!" Dogamy exclaimed. "You must have been the human who played with Greater Dog and Lesser Dog!"

"I don't think we've seen them this happy in such a long time!" noted Dogaressa.

Frisk waved hello to the dogs. Doggo looked up and saw the moving human, then returned to shaking his hand of cards so that he could see them.

Greater Dog, the dog in the huge set of armor, rose up from his seat, ready to give lots of love and affection. However, the other three dogs at the table were alarmed and told him to sit back down before he would accidentally knock the table over.

"Anyways, go on ahead." Dogamy said.

"We're technically on break, so we won't attack you now." Dogaressa explained.

That was a relief.

Sans, having watched the events that had occurred, turned to Frisk.

"well, it appears you got out of a _ruff_ situation," Sans joked, not letting this opportunity to go to waste.

Many of Grillby's patrons laughed as they heard the pun, dogs included.

Sans walked up to the bar counter, which had a few tall seats propped close to it.

"Hey Sans," one of the monsters near the counter noted, "weren't you just here for breakfast a few minutes ago?"

"nah, i haven't had breakfast in at least half an hour," Sans replied. "you must be thinking of brunch."

The skeleton shrugged as the monsters chucked again.

Sans gestured to one of two seats. "here, get comfy."

"Just a moment," Frisk said.

She walked over to Lesser Dog and pet it on the head a few times. Not as much as last time, but enough to make its neck grow a little.

Seeing the dog pant so excitedly was amusing to everyone.

* * *

As she joined Sans by sitting in the other barstool, the sound of flatulence was emitted.

She hopped off and noticed that a whoopie cushion had been placed on the seat.

"whoops, watch where you sit down," Sans noted, with a pronounced grin on his face. "sometimes weirdos put those on the seats."

The prank object was picked up and thrown to the side before Frisk sat back down.

"anyway, let's order," the skeleton spoke. "whaddya want? fries or a burger?"

A warm meal sounded great. It just didn't feel healthy to have a diet consisting solely of popsicles and cinnamon buns. There was the spaghetti, but… well… no.

Frisk didn't have much experience with fast food, though. She knew that burgers were round sandwiches, and fries were something cut up and fried, but… not much else.

So she shrugged and asked Sans. "What do you think?"

"hmm… why don't we just get both?" Sans suggested.

"Alright." She recalled how Toriel had pretty much done the same thing when it came to the flavor of her pie.

Sans grabbed the bartender's attention, whose head appeared to be on fire. "grillby, we'll have a double order of burg with a side of fries."

As Grillby walked through the back door, Frisk realized that he was composed of flames in a suit. That was actually pretty cool, although she could imagine how that could be very inconvenient at times. No one would want to give you a handshake, for instance.

She turned her eyes away from the exit and back to Sans.

"so, what do you think of my brother?" the skeleton asked. "He's pretty cool, isn't he?"

"Yeah!" Frisk replied, recalling the tense and dramatic "date" that had happened very recently.

"well, you'd be cool too if you wore that outfit every day," Sans spoke. "he'd only take that thing off if he absolutely had to."

Papyrus had taken off the battle body to show off his special clothes, just for her. Understandable, considering that he hadn't gone on a date before, but it made Frisk feel a bit more valued anyways.

"oh well," Sans continued. "at least he washes it. and by that i mean he wears it in the shower."

They both laughed as Grillby brought plates of food to them. After dropping them off, the bartender returned to polishing the bar's glassware.

"here comes the grub," Sans noted.

The child tried one of the fries, then took a small bite of her burger. Both tasted pretty good, even if a bit greasy.

Sans held out a bottle of ketchup to her. "want some ketchup?"

Frisk recalled one time when one of the kids found a nearly-full bottle of ketchup and had brought it back to the orphanage. One of the kids had accidentally spilled some all over himself, so it looked like he was bleeding profusely.

Needless to say, this incident had ruined ketchup for her.

When she refused it, Sans appeared to be a little disappointed, like the disappointment someone gets if he or she had prepared for a prank that didn't work out.

But then he shrugged. "more for me."

Instead of eating his food with the ketchup, Sans lifted the condiment bottle to his mouth and drank the contents from it.

"Eww…" Frisk quietly said, as the last drops of ketchup in the bottle was consumed.

When the skeleton noticed her expression of disgust, he smiled at her with ketchup-stained teeth just to mess with her a little more.

"hopefully you still got your appetite," he teased. "go ahead and dig in if you still want to."

Thankfully, Frisk's appetite wasn't dampened too much, as her stomach was on empty and the food had been very enticing.

As she chowed down, she noticed that Sans was only taking a few bites of his food. When she asked, the skeleton stated that he wasn't terribly hungry. He would probably store it in a bag to have it later as take-out.

"by the way, i've been thinking of selling some snacks myself," he mentioned, absentmindedly munching on a fry. "how does fried snow sound?"

"Why not?" Frisk jokingly responded. She knew exactly why not, as fried snow would turn into fried water, which would just turn into plain old steam.

"well, thing is… " Sans continued. "i don't have any snow. that's the problem."

Of course, that wasn't too much of a setback in Snowdin.

"anyways," the skeleton spoke, changing the subject. "my brother's a real star. he's actually the person who pushed me to get this sentry job."

"maybe it's a little strange, but sometimes… it's nice to have someone call you out on being lazy."

"even though nothing could be further from the truth," he added rather sarcastically.

Sans thought for a moment, recalling an event involving his brother. "say, wanna hear a story about papyrus?"

Frisk nodded eagerly in reply.

"one day," the skeleton began, "he went to the house of the head of the royal guard… and begged her to let him be in it."

"of course, she shut the door on him because it was midnight," he continued, eliciting a chuckle from the child.

"but the next day, she woke up and saw him still waiting there. seeing his dedication, she decided to give him warrior training."

Papyrus didn't strike her as the person who would be taking warrior training. He seemed too friendly.

"it's, uh, still a work in progress."

Oh. That explains.

A question popped up in Frisk's head.

"What exactly is the royal guard?" she asked.

Sans pointed to the various dogs sitting around in the pub. Right now, the four dogs at the table were yelping over a rule violation in the card game that they were playing, while Lesser Dog had given up at poker and had switched to playing Go Fish with itself.

"those dogs are part of the snowdin canine unit of the royal guard. back in the day, they accompanied the royal family when they would go on outings… but in recent times, there isn't much of a royal family to defend."

"so now they just patrol around," he continued. "keeping the peace, searching for humans, that kind of stuff."

Frisk wasn't a fan of that "searching for humans" part. But someone was probably going to do it down here.

"their leader… undyne… she's rude, loud, beats up people that get in her way." Sans explained. "no wonder all the kids love her, right?"

Frisk had lived with a lot of younger, more rambunctious children. She understood exactly what he meant.

"it's best if you don't meet her. there's a reason why the place where she lives doesn't need royal guard members like snowdin. she's _that_ good at her job."

From the way he said that, Frisk inferred that she would have to pass through that place in order to reach the barrier. This scared her.

Sans noticed how anxious she was. "well, try not to get noticed. that's my advice."

By now, Frisk was done with her food, even though a third of it remained. Not that she was full, as the food made by monsters were magically converted directly into energy. It was just that she had gotten sick from having so much grease in one sitting. She pushed it aside and placed her arms on the counter.

"oh yeah, I wanted to ask you few things," Sans mentioned. "i noticed that you were wearing something different during your 'date' with papyrus."

Frisk did recall that Sans was in his room during her date. She wondered what he had been doing in there. He was probably dozing off or something along those lines.

"where did the dress come from?" he asked. "did someone in snowdin give it to you, or… was it from somewhere else?"

Frisk thought over her response for a moment. Should she tell anyone about Toriel? Or would Toriel want her to leave everyone else outside the ruins in the dark? She wasn't really sure, so she decided on omitting the specific details.

"I got it from a friend back in the ruins," she replied. "Why do you ask?"

"oh, no reason in particular. i just found it very… intriguing."

Sans turned his head to face her. "anyways, here's another question for ya. have you ever heard of a talking flower?"

Frisk tensed up, Flowey's malicious cackle echoing in her head.

Sans noticed the grim expression on her face. He could tell that the child was familiar with it, but not in a good way.

"so you know all about it," he noted, "but that expression… it doesn't seem very pleasant."

"It tried to kill me… " she said, her voice shaking.

It was clear that Sans was not expecting that sort of response.

"huh. that's not something you hear everyday. care to elaborate?"

Frisk lowered her head, placing it within her arms. She really didn't want to talk about the experience, but she knew that she must.

"It was the first person I met in the underground…" she explained. "It seemed friendly… but it hurt me when it hit my soul with one of its bullets."

Sans seemed quite concerned by this information. "hmm…"

The pupils of his eye-sockets dimmed. "well, papyrus told me something interesting the other day. sometimes, when no one else is around… a flower appears and whispers things to him."

This information grabbed Frisk's attention. It made her terrified, yet curious to know more.

"things like flattery… advice… encouragement… predictions. weird, huh?"

He shrugged. "until now, i thought that someone must be using an echo flower to play a trick on him."

Frisk recalled hearing about the echo flower from her studies with Toriel, as one of her books had a picture of it. However, Toriel didn't discuss it with her, since there were no echo flowers in the ruins.

Sans noticed her curiosity. "oh right, the echo flower. they're all over the marsh. say something to them, and they'll repeat it over and over…"

"that's what i thought what he meant by a talking flower. but now… i'm not so sure about that theory."

The skeleton's eye-sockets closed as he went deep in thought. "what could a flower like that possibly want with my brother?"

They were both silent for a few moments as the two of them pondered this question.

Meanwhile, Greater Dog was proudly barking in victory over winning the card game. The other three dogs let out a collective grumble.

Sans reopened his sockets. "well, who knows?"

"keep an eye out, ok?" he asked. "i'll be doing the same. although, y'know, I'll be keeping an eye-socket out instead."

"Definitely," Frisk replied.

"thanks."

Sans hopped off his seat, his silly demeanor returning. "welp, that was a long break. i can't believe i let ya pull me away from work for that long."

The skeleton asked Grillby for two paper bags, who had managed to hand them off somehow without setting them on fire. He dumped the contents of his plate into one of the bags, and gave the other to Frisk to do the same with her leftovers.

"oh, by the way…" Sans added. "i'm flat broke. can you foot the bill? it's just ten-thousand G."

"I would," Frisk said, taking that as a joke. "I'm just a little short on money, though."

The response managed to tickle Sans's funny bone, eliciting a laugh from him. "just kidding with ya, kid."

He made a gesture to the bartender. "grillby, put it on my tab."

Sans grabbed his take-out bag and began to walk towards the door, but then he turned back around.

"by the way… you don't want to walk the whole way back, right? come with me, then."

The child hastily put the leftovers into her backpack and walked over to join him.

* * *

Soon, they had ended up back at the spot where they had left earlier. Frisk still wasn't sure how he was able to do that.

Sans took his seat back at his station.

"let's hang out again some time," he suggested. "i'll be seeing ya then."

Frisk waved goodbye to the skeleton as she ventured deeper into the caverns.

* * *

In the caverns of Waterfall, Flowey waited impatiently. The child should be around here by this time…

Well, it seemed that she went on a bit of a detour. But it didn't matter. Frisk would have to pass through here eventually if she wanted to reach the barrier.

The flower took a bit of time to think about the situation.

After Frisk had been able to use nonviolent methods to get past Toriel, he expected her to spare Papyrus through similar means as well. After all, neither of them had attacked her with the intent to kill.

But the child would have to go through Waterfall. She would have to meet the heroine of the monsters. Since the monsters were so close to being freed from the underground… the heroine would show the human no mercy.

And the question that Flowey had posed at the end of the ruins would become relevant.

What will Frisk do when she meets a relentless killer?

Would she give up on living all together? Would she try to find a method to avoid confrontation? Or would she strike back, resorting to murder to remove the threat in her way?

Well, it would be interesting to see.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Premonition: a strong feeling that something is about to happen, especially something unpleasant.**

 **I think that's a fitting title for this chapter.**

 **This chapter's pretty short, since it's only of a scene that takes about five minutes to complete in-game. Not too much to say about it.**

 **Depending on how much time I have, the next chapter may come a little late. We'll see.**

 **Next chapter, we actually start _Waterfallllllllllllll._**


	10. Run!

**This one's a bit late because A) I had lots of school work to do and B) this chapter's pretty long. Enjoy!**

 **By the way… if you're squeamish when it comes to blood, I'd be a bit careful while reading this chapter. There's nothing graphic, though.**

* * *

Frisk continued on through the caverns.

She noticed that there was another one of those boxes, with a sign describing its purpose written by a box hater. Near it was a wide, flowing waterfall, spilling water all over the ground of the path in front of her.

From the top of it, boulders were cascading down. They tumbled along the ground, heading towards the bottomless abyss.

A downwards ramp was present nearby, leading to a bridge. At the bridge's end sat a single tall cyan plant.

She recognized it as an echo flower.

Frisk cautiously walked across the bridge to reach the flower. When she propped her ear next to it, she could faintly hear a voice coming from it.

"I swore I saw something… behind that rushing water…"

Frisk decided to investigate. She made her way across the bridge and back up the ramp.

While staring intently at the waterfall, she noticed that there was indeed something behind the center of it.

She dropped her bag off next to the box to make sure it didn't get wet. Then she ran across, avoiding the boulders rolling around in her path.

Once she had reached the midway point of the waterfall, she noticed that there was a hidden room behind the water. She dashed through to remain dry as possible.

The room behind the waterfall contained a few glowing mushrooms, shining crystals embedded in the walls, and a single object of clothing. She picked up the clothing and held it close to the mushrooms' light so that she could observe it.

It was a tutu skirt, like the ones that young girls would wear when they played dress-up.

A few of her friends on the surface were learning how to perform ballet. Unfortunately for Frisk, she had a terrible sense of balance. Dancing wasn't a natural thing for her, since she would always fall over if she tried. It suited her better to close her eyes and comprehend the rhythm of music rather than to try to act it out.

She observed the clothing item, noticing that it was old and strangely dusty. It looked like it would fit her if she put it on.

The child had no reason to wear it at the moment, however. She held on to it anyways.

Since there was nothing left to do in that room, she hopped right out of it and ran to fetch her backpack.

Frisk decided to store the tutu for later use, as it might become handy later. The tutu was shoved into the bag, then the bag was placed comfortably on her back.

The child ran across the entirety of the path covered with flowing water, dodging boulders while splashing water all over her shoes and the ankles of her trousers.

* * *

Frisk entered a dimly-lit hallway. A large patch of very tall grass grew within it. As she stepped into it, she found that the grass reached well over the height of her head. The blades tickled her face as she crept through the grass, imagining herself as a predator creeping up on its prey.

Around midway through, the child halted. She had heard the familiar sound of jangling bones and the stomping of boots.

She peered upwards. The walls cut off far above her, creating a ledge. She couldn't see anything that sat on top of it, but by the shadows casted she could discern two tall figures standing there.

One shadow contained the unmistakable head shape and body structure of Papyrus. But the other… she couldn't recognize it, but it looked like that of an armored knight, as if it was preparing for battle.

"H... HI, UNDYNE!" a loud, familiar voice greeted. "I'M HERE WITH MY DAILY REPORT…"

Upon hearing that name, the child silently ducked down into the grass, heeding Sans's advice. A shudder passed through her body.

"UHHH... REGARDING THAT HUMAN I CALLED YOU ABOUT EARLIER…"

The other figure, presumably Undyne, swung around to face Papyrus, muttering something that the child couldn't make out.

"...HUH? DID I FIGHT HER?" the skeleton asked.

He struck a dramatic pose, but did it without his usual confidence. "Y-YES! OF COURSE I DID! I FOUGHT HER VALIANTLY!"

Undyne turned away off into the direction opposite of the hallway, muttering something else.

"...WHAT? DID I CAPTURE HER...?" Papyrus repeated. "W-W-WELL… NO."

He hung his head in shame. "I TRIED VERY HARD, UNDYNE, BUT IN THE END… I FAILED. INSTEAD… I… ACCIDENTALLY… T-TOOK HER ON A DATE…?"

Frisk could hear the slight jangling of armor, as if Undyne was amused by this.

But then the figure turned to face Papyrus, fiercely saying something that Frisk was still unable to discern.

"… W-WHAT?" the skeleton exclaimed. "YOU'RE GOING TO TAKE THE HUMAN'S SOUL YOURSELF…?"

His shadow began moving towards Undyne's. "BUT UNDYNE, YOU DON'T H-HAVE TO DESTROY HER! YOU SEE… YOU SEE…"

The armored figure aggressively took an step forwards, causing Papyrus to scramble back in shock.

The skeleton was silent as an eye from behind the heroine's helmet coldly glared at him.

"...I UNDERSTAND," he reluctantly said. "I'LL HELP YOU IN ANY WAY I CAN."

The skeleton dejectedly walked off into another direction.

After a few moments passed, Frisk quietly rose from her spot and tried to pass silently through the grass. But as she took a step in the wrong place, she made a loud rustling noise.

Undyne's attention immediately snapped to the direction of the patch of grass. She walked towards the edge to get a better look at the source of the disturbance, the armor on her body clanging with every step.

Frisk was able to view the figure from the grass now. Undyne's armor reflected brightly through the darkness, and an intimidating helmet was placed over the entirety of her head. A long, curling ponytail stuck out of from the back of it.

The heroine held out her hand, and a glowing, aquamarine spear magically formed within it. She placed one foot in front of the other and leaned downwards slightly, seemingly to prepare for an attack.

The child was frozen in place. She wanted to duck further into the grass, but she didn't want to draw too much attention to her location. Still, the grass was taller than her, so if she stayed still… maybe she wouldn't be seen?

Undyne glared downwards over the edge, slowly moving her head from left to right to thoroughly examine the patch.

Her eyes became fiercely focused on an area in particular.

The one that Frisk was hiding in.

Yet Undyne's gaze remained there only for a few moments. She soon stood back up, the spear in her hand dissipating back into formless magical energy.

The armored figure took a few steps backwards, slowly disappearing into the shadows.

It took a few more minutes before the child mustered the courage to move again. She took a tentative step forwards. Finding that Undyne had truly left the area, she left out a sigh of relief as she exited the patch of grass.

Frisk was thankful that her bladder was empty; otherwise she would have probably wet herself.

As she began to walk away, a smaller figure began to walk out of the patch. She turned back, seeing that it was the monster kid that she had met earlier. He was hyperactively glancing around the room, surveying the scene.

"Yo... did you see the way she was staring at you?" the kid said.

The child did. She did not like it one bit.

"That… was _awesome_!" the young monster cried. "I'm _soooo_ jealous!"

The kid looked to Frisk with eyes filled with admiration. "What'd you do to get her attention...? Ha ha."

"C'mon!" he shouted with excitement. "Let's go watch her beat up some bad guys!

The kid began to run off, but then he tripped, landing face first on the floor. "Ow."

"Do you need a hand?" Frisk offered.

"Nah, I'm fine!" He hopped right back up onto his feet, despite lacking arms. "See? I'm used to this happening all the time! Ha ha!"

And the kid eagerly ran off, unfazed by the fall.

Frisk looked back to the ledge. A feeling of dread began to hang over her as she stared off into the darkness.

Still, she stayed determined.

* * *

The child instinctively clenched her hands into fists and continued on.

A plaque was present on the wall. She could barely make out the words that had been engraved on it.

"When four bridge seeds align in the water, they will sprout."

As she went forth, she noticed a spot where some of these bridge seeds sat. Ahead of her, a pool of water blocked her way.

She picked up one of the seeds and took it over to the pool. She placed it into the water and pushed it towards the other end.

She repeated this process with three other bridge seeds, placing them all in a single-file line.

When the fourth bridge seed was placed, all of the seeds immediately sprouted into large lily pads with flowers on top of them.

The child carefully took a step on the first lily pad. Finding that it was stable enough to support her own weight, she stood on it, and stepped from one lily pad to the other to get across.

* * *

Frisk continued on, crossing a short wooden bridge over another pool of water.

She looked around, noticing that more bridge seeds were present on the ground. Before she could figure out where they were supposed to go, a voice grabbed her attention.

"Hey!" a masculine, flirty voice called from the nearby pool of water. "Just the two of us, huh?"

She looked to her right and noticed that a monster sitting in the nearby pool was calling out to her. It had the head of a horse, with dark, flowing hair, but it had a torso containing lots of abs and the long tail of a fish.

He introduced himself, flexing his arms while winking at her. "My name's Aaron. Check out these muscles!"

The muscles were indeed impressive. But they did seem a bit excessive…

"Come on in, the water's fine," Aaron invited with a wink. The way he was looking at Frisk made her feel uncomfortable.

Very uncomfortable.

Frisk took a backward step away from him.

"Don't want to get wet feet, huh?" he said. "That's alright with me!"

Aaron started rising out of the water, soon floating in midair. Soon, he began to wander in the child's general direction.

This was not helping matters.

"Can you please back up a little?" she politely asked.

Aaron ignored her request as he flexed some more, showing off his rippling muscles. "You know you want 'em!"

The monster had gotten into range so that the battle box had popped up directly in front of the child. An attack began, as flexing arms rose from the bottom of the box. Frisk's soul moved left and right to avoid the attacks as they slid upwards.

Meanwhile, Aaron was still approaching her, still winking rather seductively.

Frisk began to walk backwards, glancing back every so often to make sure she wouldn't fall into a pool of water.

"Go away!" she yelled.

This didn't accomplish much.

"Hmm…" the monster said. "Feisty, aren't you?"

Another attack began. Drops of water began raining down from the top edge of the box.

During the attack, Aaron winked again. "Whew, I'm sweating."

It occurred to the child that it wasn't rain that her soul was dodging. Eww…

Frisk tried to step back further, but found that she was up against the wall. A wave of panic rushed down her body.

It was clear that Aaron wasn't going to listen to anything that she would say. A different approach would have to be taken.

She raised her fists in front of her to defend herself, an instinct of self-preservation beginning to kick in.

Aaron seemed fairly oblivious to these actions. Frisk shut her eyes as he continued to float closer, just in range for a—

THWACK!

The child opened her eyes and noticed that she had hit her mark.

Aaron had received a faceful of gloved fist.

It was not very strong by human standards, as Frisk wasn't very strong physically, but it seemed to be strong enough to get the job done.

The monster recoiled away from her in initial shock.

"Wow!" Aaron painfully exclaimed. "Spunky! I love it!"

He only flexed some more and resumed to floating towards her again. "Now where was I?"

Clearly, some further "persuasion" would be required. Soon after he floated in range again—

THWACK!

Aaron clearly got the message after the second one.

"Wahhh!" he cried, still winking for some reason. "Please stop it! I'll go away!"

The monster swiftly flew away from the child and off into another room.

Frisk let out a sigh of relief as she unclenched her hands. That was an experience she didn't want to repeat.

* * *

It was just a normal day for Woshua. He was cleaning up Waterfall, like usual. Right now he was working on removing all the dirty footprints on the floor of the wishing room.

Aaron floated in, rubbing the wound on his face.

"Hey, Wosh," he said, still winking. "What's up?"

"What happened?" Woshua asked, having turned his attention away from his work and noticing Aaron's condition. "You look all beat up."

"I got punched in the face," Aaron said rather bluntly.

"Stop getting punched in the face." Woshua replied with a grumble. "If you die, I'm going to have to clean up after you… "

He turned to face the horse-headed monster. "Well, who did it?"

"Someone wearing a striped coat," Aaron replied.

After putting two and two together, Woshua stared at him with an expression that was part surprise, part contempt. "You approached a kid like that? What is wrong with you!?"

Aaron scratched his head sheepishly. "Umm… I couldn't tell?"

"Don't you know that only kids wear stripes?" Woshua asked. "You were going to get hurt one day if you kept flirting with everyone you meet like that."

"I don't do that with everyone," Aaron protested. "I-"

Woshua corrected himself. "Everyone _but_ Undyne."

Aaron failed to come up with a retort. "... Point taken."

"You know what?" Woshua impatiently remarked. "Let me just give you your wash already. This wishing room isn't going to clean itself."

* * *

Now that Aaron was gone from the room, Frisk examined the scene.

She noticed a yellow bell-shaped object in the corner. The plaque next to it had some information about it.

"If an error is made, the Bell Blossom can call bridge seeds back to where they started."

The child glanced around and noticed that the location of the room's exit was blocked off by a similarly narrow pool of water, except parts of the ground jutted out into it.

Frisk went ahead and picked up all the bridge seeds, planning to form a bridge with them. After some trial and error, requiring the use of the Bell Blossom a couple of times, Frisk was able to create a bridge that would take her across the pool.

As she crossed the lily pads and was heading towards the exit, a ring sounded from inside her backpack.

She pulled out her phone, wondering if it was Toriel.

The number was recognized as Papyrus's. It was still better than a random stranger, but still a little disappointing.

Frisk accepted the call and held the phone up to her ear.

* * *

"HELLO!" the voice from the other end greeted. "THIS IS PAPYRUS!"

"Hi."

"YOU'RE PROBABLY WONDERING HOW I GOT THIS NUMBER," the skeleton stated. "IT WAS EASY! I JUST DIALED EVERY NUMBER SEQUENTIALLY UNTIL I GOT YOURS! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!"

Seemed a little impractical, but whatever worked.

"Okay… good to know."

"SO… DO YOU MIND IF I ASK A QUESTION?"

"Go ahead."

"WHAT ARE YOU WEARING...?" Papyrus asked. "I'M... ASKING FOR A FRIEND."

Frisk went dead quiet, recalling the sight of his shadow up with Undyne's.

"SHE THOUGHT SHE SAW YOU WEARING A COAT AND A FADED RIBBON," the skeleton remarked. "IS THAT TRUE? ARE YOU WEARING THAT?"

The child did not want to tell a lie. "… yeah."

"SO YOU ARE WEARING A COAT AND A FADED RIBBON… GOT IT! HAVE A NICE DAY!"

"You too!"

Click…

* * *

Well, she didn't want to tell a lie to Papyrus, but she didn't want to provide information that would get her killed, either. Dying was not in her best interest.

So she didn't lie to Papyrus immediately, but she decided that she would change what she wore. This seemed like the best of both worlds, even if that meant Papyrus would be telling a lie by spreading wrong information.

Besides, this change would for the better. These caverns were considerably warmer and more humid than the snow-covered caverns that she had left behind. The clothes Toriel had provided were clearly for winter weather, and they were beginning to weigh down on her.

And if she fell into a pool of water, more clothing would only prevent her from staying afloat. And staying afloat was a good thing, because drowning was not.

Frisk began by undoing the ribbon in her hair. She kept it her bag instead of discarding it, as she had formed an attachment to the ribbon by wearing it for so long.

The child then took off her coat, taking a deep breath as it was taken off of her back. She neatly folded and stored it in her bag, as well.

She then sat on the ground and worked to get her trousers off as well, being careful to not remove the shorts she wore beneath them. Again, she folded and placed the it into her bag.

Storing all these clothes took up a lot of space. To make a little more room, she took the tutu out of her bag and placed it around her waist, being a perfect fit. Somehow, putting it on made her feel safer, as if it was a protective piece of armor.

Frisk walked up to a pool of water to observe herself in her reflection, visible through the light emitted from crystals in the wall. Bar the tutu, she was wearing what she had worn when she had fallen into the underground. Yet she noticed a few differences: her hair was a little messier, her stance was more upright, and her expression was more… feral, maybe?

Despite it all, the person that stared back from the water was still her.

* * *

Frisk went through the exit, entering the next room.

She looked up at the ceiling. Embedded in it were many glowing crystals, illuminating the room with a dim, distant light.

They reminded her of the stars.

Frisk recalled the last time she had seen them. When she had managed to escape the orphanage, she looked up to the night sky and stared in awe at the beauty of the cosmos.

She couldn't gaze off at them for too long, as she didn't want to be caught. Had she known that it might have been the last time that she would ever see them, however, she might have stood there for a little longer.

She came to the realization that this was the closest the monsters could get to see the stars, since they were all stuck underground. This made her a little sad inside.

The nearby plaque had the words "Wishing Room" carved into it. It appeared that monsters also believed in the "wishing upon a star" tradition as well.

The room also contained a few echo flowers sprouting from the floor, repeating the wishes murmured by the monsters that had spoke near them.

Frisk noticed that she was not alone here. In the middle of the room, a monster was rinsing off the floor.

It was a short turtle-like creature, with a round head and four small limbs. However, instead of a shell, it had a object resembling a water-filled bathtub for its body. In it, a small bird sat on an object floating on the surface of the water.

"Scrub a dub-dubs!" it mumbled to itself. "Oops, I meant scrub a subs-subs…"

As she approached, the monster heard her footsteps. It turned away from its work to face her.

"Hello there! My name's Woshua." the monster began. "Are you-"

Then he noticed that the child was wearing a striped shirt.

"By any chance…" Woshua inquired, "Have you met a guy called Aaron? Floats around, flexes, that kind of stuff?"

Considering what had happened, Frisk didn't want to give a straight answer. "Uhh… no?"

Woshua cocked his head. "You don't have to lie to me. You've met him, haven't you? And it didn't go so well, I've heard… "

The child frowned. "Not really."

"It's alright," the monster explained. "Aaron does that to everyone. Everybody in Waterfall's gotten used to it… but it was going to happen to him eventually."

Woshua then spotted that something was off. His expression changed to one of curiosity as he hopped over to Frisk, intently staring at something on her leg.

"Eww… what is that?" Woshua asked. "I don't recognize a stain like that at all."

Frisk looked down and observed that the bandage covering the cut on her leg had fallen off at some point. While the wound had mostly healed, there was still some dried blood around it.

"It's just some blood," she casually explained.

Woshua got suspicious. "Wait a minute… blood?"

Frisk recalled that monsters don't bleed. Whoops.

"Hmm… are you a human?" the monster asked. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone if you are."

He seemed trustworthy enough, so Frisk confirmed it.

Woshua would have shrugged at the response, if he wasn't a quadruped. "Huh. I thought humans were a bit more… y'know, glamorous?"

"Well, they have these really neat and shiny magazines that fall in here every so often. I look at those, but that's all I know about humans."

The monster realized something. "Oh yeah, I forgot to start our battle. Where are my manners?"

A battle box appeared.

Woshua had noticed the way Frisk was looking at him. "What? It's monster tradition! It's customary to greet someone new with a bullet pattern!"

It sounded like a painful and inconvenient tradition.

"While we get it over with, do you mind if I clean that off?" the monster asked, pointing to the stain. "It's so unclean…"

"Sure," the child responded. Why not?

"Let's get this done!" the monster exclaimed, while he began to hop around excitedly.

Woshua whistled. The bird in his tub flew out, holding a wet towel in its feet. It placed the towel into Woshua's open hand at the end of his foreleg and flew back to its spot in the water.

He hopped over to the child. "Keep in mind: green means clean!"

As Woshua got to work, softly scrubbing around the spot of the wound, an attack began. A spiralling pattern of water droplets flew out from the center of the box in a straight path.

Frisk noticed what Woshua had meant by "green means clean": occasionally, one of the water droplets was green instead of white.

As her soul came into contact one of the green water droplets, she got a refreshing feeling, like the one someone gets when taking a shower after a long day of hard work.

Soon after the attack ended, Woshua declared the job done. Frisk looked down and noted that the spot had been cleaned off very well, to the point where she could tell where he had scrubbed and where he hadn't.

The battle box disappeared as the monster pointed off into an alcove. "The exit to this room's right over there. It might look like a dead end, but the door should open once you get near it."

Frisk walked to it, being careful not to slip on the wet floor.

"Oh, one more thing before you go," Woshua said, grabbing Frisk's attention before she left.

"Monsters turn into dust when they die," he continued, "and that's hard to clean up. Do you think I can hold a broom and dustpan with arms like these?"

They did seem unsuited to those things.

"Please… don't turn anyone into dust."

No more punching monsters. Got it.

Frisk nodded. Woshua stated that he had more work to do, and bid her farewell.

She waved goodbye and left the wishing room as the exit revealed itself.

* * *

The dock that she stepped on stood over the dark, murky depths of the waters below. Sticking out from the water were tall, reedy plants that Frisk had recognized as water sausages, since they had grown around Toriel's home.

Besides the dock was a very long wall, containing many plaques placed next to each other.

The writing on these plaques was ancient. Frisk was still able to read the words that were written on them, however, even if barely.

The first plaque simply read "The War of Humans and Monsters."

She walked along the wall, reading each plaque lined up in order.

"Why did the humans attack? Indeed, it seemed that they had nothing to fear. Humans are unbelievably strong. It would take the soul of nearly every monster… just to equal the power of a single human soul."

Frisk didn't feel particularly more powerful than a monster. They could use magic to do all of these amazing things… and she was just a kid.

"But humans have one weakness. Ironically, it is the strength of their soul. Its power allows it to persist outside the human body, even after death. If a monster defeats a human, they can take its soul. A monster with a human soul... A horrible beast with unfathomable power."

The plaque following this one displayed an image of a strange creature. Something about it seemed… unsettling. It just seemed so unnatural, like something that should never exist.

"The power to take their souls. This is the power that the humans feared. This power has no counter. Indeed, a human cannot take a monster's soul. When a monster dies, its soul disappears. And an incredible power would be needed to take the soul of a living monster."

So the monsters would benefit from the power of a human soul… but the humans couldn't benefit from the power of a monster's soul. No wonder the humans tried to drive out the monsters.

"There is only one exception. The soul of a special species of monster called a 'Boss Monster.' A Boss Monster's soul is strong enough to persist after death… if only for a few moments. A human could absorb this soul. But this has never happened. And now it never will."

This plaque was accompanied by the image of a elegantly-clothed monster with a crown on its goat-like head. Somehow, Frisk found its appearance somewhat familiar.

"The humans, afraid of our power, declared war on us. They attacked suddenly, and without mercy."

An depiction of a scene was carved into the next plaque. A huge, cloaked monster with long, curved horns and a menacing trident was leading an army of monsters in battle against an army of humans.

"In the end, it could hardly be called a war. United, the humans were too powerful, and us monsters, too weak. Not a single soul was taken, and countless monsters were turned to dust…"

Frisk realized why the story of the war between humans and monsters turned into a simple myth over the ages back on the surface. It wasn't much of a war than it was a one-sided massacre. It wasn't even an event worth recording in detail.

"Hurt, beaten, and fearful for our lives, we surrendered to the humans."

The next plaque depicted the monster population at the mercy of a large crowd of weapon-wielding humans.

"Seven of their greatest magicians sealed us underground with a magic spell. Anything can enter through the seal, but only beings with a powerful soul can leave."

Back on the surface, magic only existed in fairy tales, yet her experience down here told her that magic existed. If the humans could use magic at one point, then how come they couldn't today?

"There is only one way to reverse this spell. If a huge power, equivalent to seven human SOULs, attacks the barrier… it will be destroyed."

So that's what Papyrus meant when he said that the king was using soul power to break the barrier.

How many human souls did the king have now? Did he even have any? Frisk wasn't sure if she wanted to find out.

"But this cursed place has no entrances or exits. There is no way a human could come here. We will remain trapped down here forever."

That was supposed to be true… except there were people like her who were dumb enough to wander off into that hole on Mt. Ebott.

The wall of plaques ended there, and so did the wooden dock that she was walking on. At the dock's end, a makeshift raft was present.

Frisk took a seat at the edge of the dock, her feet dangling above the surface of the water. She began to think about what was on her mind.

These monsters… they had been so kind to others, including her. They weren't the sort of creatures that deserved to be trapped down here.

Frisk wondered if perhaps she was able to loan her soul to the monsters to break the barrier. It wasn't long before she dismissed the idea, reasoning that she would probably die if she didn't have her soul.

She then had a different thought: if her soul was key to the freedom of the monsters… was it worth staying alive, if her death would mean that an entire race would be able to go free?

Frisk wasn't sure if surviving all the way to the surface or giving up her soul was the right thing to do. It depended on what the monsters would do with their newfound freedom.

And with the end of that thought, the child decided to move on. She would have plenty of time later to decide.

The child carefully got onto the raft, and pushed off from the dock. She floated for a short distance among the inky waters before the craft reached another dock on the other side.

Soon after she disembarked, the raft began to float away. This meant that she was unable to return the way she came.

Nothing to do but to continue on.

* * *

The next area was cast in darkness, with noticeably less sources of light located around. The child cast a long, pitch-black shadow on the surface of the dock.

Frisk looked around, observing what she could with the dimness.

To her left nearby, the murky waters ended up on the rocky shore. Many pillars were located upon it. Pillars that someone could be hiding behind…

She reminded herself that maybe she shouldn't be thinking about that right now. Especially in the dark.

She slowly took a few steps forward, the sound of her footsteps making the only noise that reached her ears. Everything seemed so calm… so peaceful… so—

A glowing spear shot down from the ceiling into the floor, mere inches from her feet.

Frisk exclaimed a cry of surprise as she jolted backwards. She glanced to the shore on her left, her heart sinking at the sight of the dreadfully familiar armor and helm of the attacker.

Oh no.

From behind her helmet, Undyne's eye flashed a bright aquamarine, as a trio of glowing spears magically formed in front of her. The pointed weapons swiftly locked in on the child's location and flew towards their target.

Frisk let out a yelp as she lunged forward to dodge the attacks.

Only one thought shot through her head: _Run! Don't let her kill you!_

As the child dashed off, Undyne's eye flashed again. Three more spears materialized and flew off in hot pursuit.

One of them struck Frisk in the shoulder. As it hit its mark, it disintegrated as pain immediately coursed through the child's body, the damage being inflicted directly to the child's soul.

She flinched, her feet coming to a stop in order to prevent her from losing her balance. She brushed the spot where the spear had struck her, finding that it hadn't even pierced her shirt, due to the magical nature of the attack.

The child grit her teeth and continued to flee, her feet taking her as fast as they could.

More spears flew through the air, but they seemed to be confused that the target was moving so quickly. During the time it took to lock in, Frisk's position had changed, meaning that as long as she kept running, they would fly towards a spot behind her. Still, some of them flew dangerously close to their target.

The path of the dock that continued in front of her took bends and sharp turns. The child had to slow down for a moment in order to navigate the turns, as otherwise she would lose her balance and fall into the water.

Undyne took one of these opportunities to strike. Another spear managed to hit its mark, right in the side of the child's torso.

She winced as she experienced another wave of pain, struggling to maintain her balance. The pace of her heartbeat shot up, adrenaline coursing through her veins. She soon recovered from the blow and scurried away as more spears were forming in the air.

As the chase continued, the attacks were becoming more frantic and relentless. Undyne cursed under her breath as she cast volley after volley of spears.

A spear landed into the dock right in front of Frisk's feet at an angle. As her foot was caught by it, she fell forwards, scraping her knees on the wooden dock.

She scrambled to get back up, trying her best to ignore the blood trickling down her legs, as three more spears appeared above her, ready to strike.

The child dove forward as the spears flew in. As the weapons smashed into the dock with a loud crash, Frisk glanced backwards. The spears had been launched with so much force that they had shattered into halves once they hit the dock.

All the meanwhile, Undyne was fuming with rage, her armor violently shaking as her feet struck the ground below her.

The path of the dock eventually straightened out. As Frisk ran across, she noticed that the shore that Undyne was standing on didn't extend quite as far as the dock did.

The heroine was confined from continuing the chase from that point, but she kept launching more and more spears.

As Frisk was reaching the dock's end, giving way to land, another huge patch of tall grass was in front of her. She rushed into the brush and quietly crept through it.

Soon, the barrage of spears came to a stop.

The child took a few deep breaths, relieving the tension in her body. However, it would come right back as the sound of clanging armor rang through the air.

Frisk's progress through the grass came to an absolute halt.

Undyne wordlessly stomped through the tall grass. The clanging noise was getting closer.

The terrified child's eyes shut as the noise stopped, the armored figure located right behind her. She could hear the warrior's audible, deep huffs of frustration.

The captain of the Royal Guard slowly rose her gloved hand… and fiercely plunged it into the grass with a single stroke.

When the hand rose back up again, it was holding someone. Instead of the human Undyne was expecting, however… her grip contained a young monster.

The kid's mouth was agape in admiration, stricken speechless by being picked up by his idol.

Undyne slowly lowered the kid back onto the ground. She turned around with an exasperated huff and left, not needing to make a further scene.

Once Frisk could no longer hear the clanging of Undyne's armor, she carefully made her way through the tall grass.

She heard the rustling of the kid making his way through the grass behind her.

"Yo!" the kid excitedly exclaimed. "Did you see that!?"

His eyes were gleaming. "Undyne just… _touched me!_ I'm never washing my face ever again!"

"Man, are you unlucky," he said to Frisk. "If you were standing a little bit to the left…!"

Well, Frisk was glad that she wasn't standing a little bit to the left.

The kid misinterpreted the expression on her face. "Yo! Don't worry! I'm sure we'll see her again!"

He began to ran off before he tripped and fell again. But soon, the kid was back on his feet and rushing off, greatly enthusiastic about the next encounter.

The prospect of it had only filled Frisk with dread.

* * *

The child painfully stumbled into a mostly empty room.

There was a piece of cheese located on a small table. A magical crystal had grown around it, and it was stuck to the table as a result.

An echo flower was present, repeating the squeaks of the mouse that lived nearby.

Frisk took a seat near the wall. As she examined her injuries, she noticed that the blood flowing out from the scrapes on her knees had created quite a mess. If Woshua saw this, he would probably freak out.

She pulled the glove off of her right hand and used her index finger to wipe some of it off. With her blood, she drew a little smiley face on the ground. It was like using finger paints… except noticeably more morbid.

The child used the rest of her fingers to clean up, covering them with warm, sticky fluid. She wiped the blood onto the ground, absentmindedly making little drawings in the process.

Once most of the blood on her legs had been cleaned up, she admired her work. Most of the stains on the floor were just simple streaks, but she had drawn some crimson flowers with a red sun hovering above them.

Frisk took the bag off of her back and rummaged around for something to eat, as her soul was still damaged. She settled for the leftovers from Grillby's, although they had gone cold. She slowly ate, her soul healing with every bite, until the greasy paper bag was empty.

And with that, Frisk placed the glove back on her hand and picked herself up, deciding to head on. Her knees still stung, but there wasn't much she could do about that.

* * *

Frisk noticed that Sans was present up ahead. He stood next to a telescope, talking to a small, white monster.

"What's that you got there?" the small monster had asked.

"that's a telescope," the skeleton explained. "up on the surface, people use 'em to look at the stars."

"What's a star?" the little monster asked. "Can you touch it? Can you eat it? Can you kill it?"

Its eyes widened. "Are you a star?"

Sans chuckled. "stars are found all the way up in space, far beyond even the surface. we're unable to reach them."

"How do you know they exist, then?" the monster asked.

"people see them in the sky on the surface."

"Ohh."

Sans noticed that Frisk had walked in on their conversation.

"oh hey, frisk," he greeted. "this little guy wonders what stars are. have you seen them before?"

The child nodded.

"can you tell us what they're like?" the skeleton asked.

Frisk looked up the the ceiling, viewing the glowing crystals embedded in it.

"They're these little white, shining dots that only appear when it's really dark outside," she explained.

"They're like those crystals on the ceiling… except they're much brighter. And there are more of them, too… more than I could count."

She closed her eyes, feeling a sense of calmness wash over her.

"They must be pretty," the little monster remarked. "I want to visit the surface one day, so I can see the real stars."

Of course, that was impossible for a monster, due to the barrier. But a monster could still dream.

"thanks for sharing," Sans said. Frisk noticed that he seemed to be interested by what she said. Perhaps it was a subject that Sans enjoyed, explaining why he had a telescope in the first place.

Frisk opened her eyes and began to walk off, saying goodbye to the both of them.

"well, i'll be seeing ya," the skeleton remarked.

* * *

The entrance to a small cave was present, with a box next to it. She opened it, noticing that the same things she had placed in earlier were present here, as well.

She unloaded the clothes that she wasn't wearing from her backpack and placed them inside the box. In the event that she and her bag should fall into a pool of water, or otherwise get wet, she would still have something dry to wear.

In the cave, the rabbit selling Nice Cream was present, along with the cart holding his wares. Another, slightly different-looking box was nearby.

"I relocated my store, but there are still no customers…" he complained, upon noticing the child.

His expression brightened. "Fortunately, I've thought of a solution! Punch cards! Every time you buy a Nice Cream, you can take a punch card from the box. If you have three punch cards, you can trade them in for a free Nice Cream!"

Frisk did the math in her head. It didn't seem very healthy to purchase four Nice Creams all at once.

"Nice Cream!" the rabbit exclaimed. "It's the frozen treat that warms your heart! Now just 25G!"

Although the Nice Creams were more expensive this time, Frisk bought two of them, storing them for later. It was fortunate that she had found a lot of coins on the ground while travelling.

She looked in the nearby box, seeing that two punch cards had been placed there for her. She took them out and stored them in her bag. Maybe she would purchase more Nice Cream later.

And with that, she waved goodbye, exiting from the little detour.

* * *

Meanwhile, Aaron and Woshua were standing around. Woshua was taking a break from cleaning all the slime those accursed Moldsmals were leaving around.

"Y'know, I've always wondered… " Woshua pondered out loud. "Are tears sanitary?"

Aaron responded after a moment of thought. "Hmm… isn't crying just sweating from your eyes?"

"I never thought of it like that," Woshua remarked. "Does that mean that tears are unsanitary, too? It's a good thing I never cry, then."

Woshua saw a familiar face approaching in the corner of his sight.

"Oh hey, that's the human over there," he noticed.

He turned in the human's direction. "Hello! Why don't you come and hang out with us?"

Although Aaron was present, Frisk joined in anyways.

"I dunno, man," Aaron whispered to Woshua. "I don't think she likes me very much."

"It's alright," Woshua replied. "You just made a bad impression the first time. I've got a plan to get you two better acquainted!"

The human walked up and said hello to the both of them, although a bit reluctantly to Aaron.

"So I was thinking…" Woshua said to the human. "We should do something fun together. Then I got an idea! We should all have a flexing contest!"

"That's a good idea!" Aaron exclaimed.

Then he noticed something. "Wait a minute… you don't have arms to flex…"

"I guess that means I'm disqualified," Woshua said in reply.

The janitor pointed to Frisk. "The kid has arms, though!"

Aaron eagerly faced towards the child. "Okay, let's get going! Show me your best!"

Frisk rolled up the sleeves of her shirt as she curled her arm up in a rather wimpy flex. Aaron responded by flexing twice as hard, floating high into the air.

"Nice!" he exclaimed. "I won't lose, though!"

Aaron was probably going to win, anyways.

Despite this, the child tried to flex a little harder, using both of her arms. Aaron began to flex thrice as hard, striking a pose as he did so.

"I bet you can't keep up with me!" Aaron taunted.

As the child continued her unimpressive flex, Aaron began to flex very hard. In fact, Aaron was flexing so hard, he wasn't noticing how high he was flying. He crashed into the low-raised ceiling and flew right through it.

Frisk stared speechlessly at the hole Aaron had created.

"I'm sure he'll be fine!" Woshua said, also observing the hole. "He flies through the walls all the time!"

His attention turned to the human. "Hey, thanks for playing along. It looked like he was really enjoying it. He hasn't had a flexing contest since his brother… well… anyways…"

As the monster observed the child, his expression changed to one of disgust.

"Oh geez, what happened to your knees?"

"I tripped," Frisk replied. She omitted the part about being chased by someone throwing spears at her.

Woshua took a sniff, recoiling from the stench of blood.

"That stuff is nasty!" he exclaimed. "How do you humans put up with it?"

Well, the humans didn't really like it either.

Woshua went down to business. "Well, stick around for a while, because you know what?"

The monster let out a more shrill and panicked whistle. The bird in the tub got the message that they were dealing with a heavy-duty stain this time.

As a soaked towel wrapped around a bar of soap was placed into Woshua's hand, his expression became gravely serious.

"We have a lot of _wosh_ ing to do. "

Intense scrubbing shenanigans ensued.

* * *

A long time ago… far before Frisk's fall into the underground…

Two children stood a field littered with echo flowers. One of them was a monster, but the other was a human girl.

They looked up to the ceiling, viewing the glowing crystals.

"So?" the human said. "Don't you have any wishes to make?"

The monster thought for a moment. "... Hmmm, just one, but... it's kind of stupid."

"Don't say that!" the human replied. "Come on, brother, I promise I won't laugh."

"If I say my wish… you promise you won't laugh at me?"

"Of course I won't laugh!"

The monster closed his eyes, head facing into the air. "Well… here goes nothing."

"Someday, I'd like to climb this mountain we're all buried under," the monster continued. "Standing under the sky, looking at the world all around... That's my wish."

A bubbling laughter spilled from the girl's mouth.

"Hey, you said you wouldn't laugh at it!" the monster said, a little offended.

The human apologized with a grin on her face. "Sorry, it's just funny… that's my wish, too."

The two of them then stared off into the distance.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Wait a minute… if Frisk can't dance, that means she is unable to frisk. I may have written myself into a corner.**

 **Monsters can be spared if their health is lowered enough, which seems bit contrary to the idea of pacifism, but whatever. I've tested in-game by hitting Aaron in my pacifist run with the Tough Glove: turns out a executed hit around the green part only does around a fourth of Aaron.**

 **Woshua speaks rather normally outside of battle, strangely: namely during the scene that plays upon leaving Napstablook's tunes on, and the Woshua NPCs located around Waterfall later on. I mean, it would really hard to get some things across if Woshua's dialogue was just "wosh u face" and the like, but I'm not sure why it's inconsistent. Hopefully my interpretation of Woshua should suffice.**

 **Everything else should be fairly straightforward.**

 **Next time…**

 **…what's this dog doing here?**


	11. Memory

Woshua raised the soapy, blood-stained cloth, heavily panting. A drop of sweat crawled down his head.

He scanned the area of cleaning, looking for any spot of filth that had escaped him. But there was none to be found.

"At last…" the monster spoke.

He wearily set the towel onto the floor.

"It's done!" he proclaimed.

The child looked down at her lower limbs and found that they had been thoroughly cleaned. They were also very soaked, the water dripping off into her shoes.

"I just have one question," Frisk stated. "Where did the scrapes go?"

Her knees were absolutely spotless now, no longer stinging as they once did.

Woshua nodded nonchalantly. "Oh, that was easy. I just used some magic to close them. After all, germs enter your body through wounds… and germs are _nasty_ …"

The monster shuddered at the thought.

"Oh, by the way…" the child stated, having recalled something.

She pulled out her hands, showing off the stains on them. "My hands need to be washed, too."

Woshua's expression immediately changed to one of irritation.

"Oh, come on!"

* * *

A quick wash later, Frisk bid the monster goodbye.

The child examined the scenery around her. Some crystals in the water were glowing a bright, fluorescent cyan, giving the water the same color. It looked like it would be really cool to swim in, but Frisk wasn't able to test that out.

The child looked down at the ground and noticed a sole vine trailing off into a corner. It looked similar to the ones that she recalled from the ruins, so it caught her attention.

She curiously followed it, leading her to an area containing a patch of tall grass.

The end of the vine had been wrapped around an object. Frisk managed to free the object from the vine and found that it was a pair of dust-covered ballet shoes, worn-out and suited for human feet.

The child took off her shoe and placed one of the ballet shoes on. Somehow, wearing it made her feel incredibly dangerous, like she could strike someone down with a sharp kick.

The way they had been left behind, wrapped up in the vines like that… it suggested that nobody was going to come back for them. They were hers for the taking.

Frisk swapped the ballet shoe back out with her normal shoe. The pair of ballet shoes was stored in her bag, but she couldn't shake the feeling that someone wanted her to have them. Just like that toy knife.

Was it him again, or was it just a coincidence?

* * *

As the child returned to the path and walked on, her cell phone rang. She picked up, noticing that the call was from Papyrus.

* * *

"HELLO!" the skeleton greeted. "THIS IS PAPYRUS!"

"Hello."

"REMEMBER WHEN I ASKED YOU ABOUT CLOTHES?"

"Yes…?"

"WELL, THE FRIEND WHO WANTED TO KNOW… HER OPINION OF YOU IS VERY… MURDERY."

"Mm hmm." The child understood that already.

"WELL, WORRY NOT, FRISK! PAPYRUS WOULD NEVER BETRAY YOU! I AM NOT A CRUEL PERSON. I STRIVE TO BE COMFORTING AND PLEASANT. PAPYRUS! HE SMELLS LIKE THE MOON."

"…what does the moon smell like?"

"PROBABLY LIKE ME! SO, BECAUSE OF MY INHERENT GOODNESS… I TOLD HER YOU WERE NOT WEARING A COAT AND A FADED RIBBON, EVEN THOUGH YOU TOLD ME YOU WERE!"

"What did you say instead?" Frisk asked.

"I MADE SOMETHING UP!" Papyrus declared. "I TOLD HER YOU WERE WEARING A STRIPED SHIRT AND A DUSTY TUTU!"

She nearly choked on her own saliva. "…What!?"

"IT PAINED ME TO TELL SUCH A BOLDFACED LIE," the skeleton stated. "I KNOW YOU WOULD NEVER EVER WEAR A STRIPED SHIRT OR A DUSTY TUTU."

"But I am wearing a striped shirt _and_ a dusty tutu."

For a moment, Papyrus was silent.

"…WELL," he eventually continued. "THAT'S AWKWARD. WE'RE… STILL FRIENDS, RIGHT?"

"Yeah!" the child said. "After all, you didn't do anything wrong…"

"YEAH! BEING FRIENDS WITH EVERYONE IS EASY! NO INTENTIONAL BETRAYAL HERE!"

"Okay… if you want to ask any more questions, just call."

"ALRIGHT! GOODBYE FOR NOW!"

"Goodbye."

Click…

The child shook her head. No wonder Undyne had recognized her so quickly.

She wasn't mad at Papyrus for reporting the information to Undyne. She was just absolutely bewildered.

How the heck did he know?

* * *

The next room contained a massive pool of water. It seemed rather empty.

That was until Frisk noticed the long, yellow appendage rising out from the water.

As she took a few more steps forward, a second appendage surfaced. It started approached her, seemingly out of curiosity, before submerging again.

Frisk took a step forward. She soon stopped right in her tracks upon noticing the huge shadow appearing in the water.

Her body tensed up as something began to rise from the pool. Her feet stood firm, ready to bolt off at the sight of a foe.

However, very little could prepare her for what had emerged from the watery depths.

A massive, squishy, onion-shaped head slowly arose from the pool. Its eyes were something straight out of a cartoon, as they took up a disproportionate area of the creature's face and were shimmering in over-excitement. A prominent blush was rushing through the creature's cheeks.

Frisk was frozen in… in… she wasn't sure. Probably something between terror and sheer confusion. This was the last thing she had expected to find down here in the underground.

"Hey… there…" the creature greeted in a high-pitched voice. "Noticed you were... here…"

Frisk was currently at a lost for words. "Uhh… hi?"

The creature's face changed into an expression of pure joy. It seemed to be pretty lonely before Frisk came along.

It eagerly introduced itself. "I'm Onionsan! Onionsan, y'hear! Thanks for coming here!"

Onionsan's head approached the child with a beaming expression. Its long appendages were splashing around in the water, unintentionally getting drops of water all over the child.

Well… it didn't seem to want to attack her. That was a relief.

"You're visiting Waterfall, huh!" Onionsan exclaimed. "It's great here, huh! You love it, huh!"

The monster raised one of its tentacles into the air. "I'd be careful, though! They're saying that a human's wandering around!"

Frisk's expression grew worrisome. Where did it hear that from…?

"That's alright!" Onionsan said. "Waterfall's still my big favorite, human or not!"

Suddenly, the monster lowered its head, seeming a bit bummed out. "Even though, the water's getting so shallow here… I have to sit down all the time, but…"

"He-hey!" Onionsan hopefully exclaimed. "That's OK! It beats moving to the city! And living in a crowded aquarium! Like all my friends did!"

But then it began to mope again, head sinking down into the water. "And the aquarium's full, a-anyway, so, even if I wanted to, I…"

Onionsan seemed to be depressed that it was stuck here in this pool.

"B-but that's okay!" the creature spoke, with a joyful expression on its face. "Y'know why?"

"Undyne's gonna get the human's soul, y'hear!" it continued. "She's gonna fix everything, y'hear! I'm gonna get out of here and live in the ocean! Y'hear!"

Onionsan shouted a whoop of excitement, tentacles thrashing about.

Frisk thought about the things that the creature had said. It was putting so much faith into Undyne… the person who was trying to kill her in order to free all the monsters.

Onionsan swam towards the other side of the room, near the exit. "Anyways, the end of this room… is right over here… I'll see you around! Have a good time!"

"In _Waterfallllllll!_ " The last syllable was slowly drowned out as Onionsan's head retreated below the water.

* * *

As Frisk entered the next room, she heard someone faintly humming.

It was coming from a light-blue fish with long hair around its head. It was situated on top of another long, scaly creature that was propping it up.

It didn't seem to be the amiable sort, as it was hiding in the corner, face turned to the wall.

Frisk began to approach it, wearing a smile on her face. This didn't seem to do much, other than frightening the creature into humming a little quieter.

"Hey!" a familiar voice shouted. "Hanging out with Shyren, huh?"

The child turned around. She noticed Aaron was present, giving her a nod of approval.

"How nice of you!" he said. "I'll leave you two to it!"

And with a wink, he began to slowly fly away. Well then.

Frisk took a step backwards and decided on a different approach. She remembered a song that had been stuck in her head since she had heard it on the radio.

She didn't recall the words, so she just went with humming the melody.

Shyren tentatively turned her head to face the child, revealing her face. She mustered the courage to begin to sing along.

A battle box formed. With every note that Shyren sung, a white music note formed, flying towards the soul in the center.

As Frisk continued to hum, Shyren felt more comfortable singing along. As the monster's singing got louder, other monsters soon began to notice. They began to crowd around the two, forming an attentive audience.

As another flurry of musical notes flew towards her soul, Frisk noticed that off in the distance, Sans was tearing off sheets from a roll of toilet paper and turning them into tickets for the concert. The skeleton winked back at her as he pocketed a few coins.

By this point, Frisk's humming was now simply an accompaniment to Shyren's wonderful singing. In fact, they had attracted an audience so large, that Sans had ran out of toilet paper. The room became filled with various monsters, fascinated by the sound of Shyren's voice.

Frisk had never been the subject of so much attention before, so naturally, she was getting a little nervous. She looked down at her shoes, but she hummed on anyways.

Her humming eventually died down, becoming little more than a whisper. But Shyren was so caught in the moment, she continued to sing, improvising the melody until she ended the performance on a high note.

The monsters let out a round of applause, cheering and complimenting on Shyren's voice. Socks flew through the air, landing on the improvised stage that the two of them were standing on.

Frisk timidly took a bow and waved goodbye to her new friend. The fish sung a little farewell melody as the child walked away, the monsters making a way for her through the crowd.

When Frisk had gotten a fair distance away from the audience, she took a deep breath, still slightly trembling from the experience.

As she left the scene behind, she heard that Shyren was beginning to sing again, as the monsters cried out for an encore.

The child grinned to herself. It seemed that Shyren was a little less shy now.

* * *

Frisk found herself in a room containing a piano. Outside of illustrations and on television, Frisk had never seen one before. She wondered what it doing down here in the underground.

A nearby plaque read: "A haunting song echoes down the corridor… won't you play along? Only the first seven are fine."

Frisk tried to listen for this song, but she couldn't hear anything else over Shyren's continuing concert.

Instead, she took a closer look at the piano. A few of the keys had been marked with a symbol.

The child took a seat and curiously pressed down on one of labelled keys. She figured out that when one of the labelled keys were pressed, a corresponding glyph placed on the wall above the piano would light up.

Frisk took time to press all the keys in order, starting from the lowest note and making her way to the highest. When that was over, she slammed down on the keys, creating a grating cacophony of noise.

That felt good.

Frisk stood back up and left the room, not having accomplished much by being here.

Still, it was kinda fun.

* * *

Frisk revisited the room where her concert with Shyren had taken place.

By this time, the concert had ended, and most of the monsters had left. The only one left was Woshua, performing the duty of cleaning up afterwards.

He had noticed the child's presence, turning to her. "That was one crazy concert, huh?"

Frisk nodded in reply. Having so many people watching her… it was a scary experience. Yet it was quite enjoyable.

With a farewell, she headed off into another direction to progress through the caverns.

The monster returned to the mess and grumbled.

What was he supposed to do with all these socks?

* * *

The hallway Frisk entered was empty, save for a statue of a monster with horns on its head, bathed in a beam of light.

This monster was sitting slumped over on the floor, its face cast in shadow. Water from the ceiling was dripping down on its head, slowly eroding away the stone that the statue was made out of.

Its hands were together, as if it was holding something that wasn't there.

The child looked ahead, noticing that there was a bucket filled with umbrellas. The nearby sign beckoned her to feel free to take one.

A thought occurred to her. She took one and opened it, raising the parasol above her head.

Frisk walked back and placed the umbrella's handle into the statue's hands, finding that it was a perfect fit. As the statue accepted the gift, a clicking noise was heard, heralding the activation of a mechanism.

A music box began to play. The tune that was released was simple, yet touching in a sad sort of way.

As Frisk stood there to listen for a while, she noticed that something was changing above the statue. As she squinted at the location, she could faintly make out the runes that had begun to glow . She noticed that the runes resembled the labels on the piano keys.

Circle, up, right, circle, down, down, right.

She wondered what would happen if she played this on the piano. It was worth a shot.

* * *

Placing the configuration into memory to the best of her ability, Frisk made her way back to the room containing the piano. She sat back down, trying to recall the whole thing.

Circle, up, right, circle… what was next again?

As she played the first four notes, her index finger moving from key to key, she found that she was, in fact, playing the first few notes from the music box's song. Since she could faintly hear the music from the room where she sat, she didn't need to backtrack to hear it.

With a little more experimentation, she managed to get the entire sequence correct. Another clicking noise sounded as a slab of stone in the wall crumbled to pieces, revealing a secret room.

It was just begging to be explored.

* * *

All the room contained was a round, shiny object placed on display.

There was something enticing about it. Maybe it was the luster, or the near-perfect roundness of it. Perhaps it was the deep red color, the hue being reminiscent of the blood spilling out of a wound.

It could have been the placement, the object being the most prominent thing in the room because it was the only thing in the room. Whatever this object was, it commanded respect.

It was the stuff of legends, the sort of artifact that brave explorers would brave countless trials to discover and take for themselves. It seemed to radiate power that mere mortals could only dream of.

The child stared at it in awe for a moment, speechless by the hidden treasure that she had stumbled across.

It seemed to be hers for the taking, since no one else was around. As much as she really didn't need it, the temptation of removing it from its place was far too great.

She breathlessly took a few steps towards the object, drawing closer and closer to the—

A loud snore had come from her backpack, breaking her out of her trance.

She confusedly took the bag off of her back, noticing that it had become slightly heavier than earlier, and took a glance inside.

Inside of her bag was a small, white dog was situated, peacefully snoozing away.

It looked very similar to the one that had stolen Papyrus's bones. It might have even been the same one.

Frisk scratched her head. She didn't recall seeing any dogs since she had left Snowdin. It wasn't even there in her bag while she was solving the piano puzzle.

How did it even get there?

Quietly, she took the dog out from her bag, gently placing it onto the ground with as much grace as she could.

When the dog touched the floor, it immediately awoke with an alert yip, much to her surprise.

The room was filled with music from an inexplicable source, an absurdly catchy song composed of barks passing through the air. It was the sort of song that someone would use as a ringtone, or something like that.

The small dog playfully bounded over to the object. It sat down next to it, excitedly panting.

Frisk watched in astonishment as the artifact drew closer to the canine, prompted by an invisible force.

The object entered the dog's body as it got close. It sunk deeper and deeper… until the dog had fully absorbed it.

With its objective completed, the dog hopped down onto the floor. With the power that it had obtained from the object, it took a leap and flew right through the walls, leaving behind the confines of the room.

The music soon came to an abrupt halt.

Frisk was unable to comprehend what she had just witnessed. She unfroze, her muscles loosening, her eyes darting around the room.

On the display, the artifact had been replaced by a white dog-shaped husk.

The child anxiously approached the object. She placed her hand on it, but in doing so, she accidentally made it collapse into a pile of fluff. She immediately retracted her hand, shaking off the dog fur off from it.

Frisk then turned around— and then nearly tripped over the mess on the floor.

The floor was now littered with other objects: dirty dishes, glowing crystals, shiny trails, even more dog-shaped husks of fur. The dirty pawprints of a dog were tracked all over the ground.

Among the random collection of objects was a box of take-out labelled "Dog Salad" in permanent marker. Out of curiosity, Frisk picked it up.

Upon opening it, a horrid smell floated out. Turns out that it was literally garbage. She wasn't planning on eating it anytime soon, so she closed the box and dropped it onto the ground.

With that, Frisk hastily left, wanting to leave this experience behind as soon as possible.

She would try to convince herself that this never happened.

* * *

The child walked all the way back to the bucket of umbrellas, deciding that she had backtracked enough.

She pulled out another umbrella, opening it up and propping it over her head.

As Frisk continued on through the hallway, she reached an area where water was spilling down from the ceiling, forming puddles on the ground.

She walked right in the center of a particularly large puddle and observed her reflection. The image was disturbed as water droplets fell into it, but for the most part it was still recognizable.

The reassurance that she received from viewing herself in the water… it was comforting.

She took a leisurely stroll, listening to the noise of the water hitting the ground, feeling the vibrations from the drops striking her umbrella.

For a moment, Frisk was not scared for her safety, nor was she confused by all the events going on around her. She wasn't in pain from being attacked, whether by friend or foe.

Finally… she was at peace. Everything felt alright, for once.

A smile slowly crept up her face.

She cherished this moment of tranquility, being away from the all the danger and the chaos that the underground had to offer.

Because she knew that it would not last.

* * *

The monster kid was standing in a little nook, seeking shelter from the downpour. Upon noticing the human approaching, the kid called out to her.

"Yo, you got an umbrella? Awesome! As you can see, I can't hold one of those! Ha ha ha."

He eagerly ran up to join Frisk underneath the umbrella. "Let's go!"

As the two of them continued on through the hallway, the kid began to talk.

"Man, Undyne is _sooooooo_ cool," he gushed. "She beats up bad guys and _never_ loses."

"If I was a human, I would wet the bed every night …knowing she was gonna beat me up! Ha ha."

Frisk looked down at the floor. She briefly considered telling him the truth: that she was a human herself. But… she decided that it would only be disappointing to him.

They continued on, water droplets splashing down around them.

"Hey, wanna hear a story?" the young monster asked. The child nodded in reply.

"So, one time," the kid began. "We had a school project where we had to take care of a flower."

"And the king - we had to call him "Mr. Dreemurr" - volunteered to donate his own flowers. He ended up coming to school and teaching the class about responsibility and stuff."

The monster's eyes darted around. "It was actually pretty boring."

The king sounded like a nice person. If Papyrus was correct in saying that she would have to meet him in order to leave the underground, it didn't sound all that bad.

"That got me thinking…" the kid pondered.

He began to excitedly daydream. " _Yo!_ How _cool_ would it be if _Undyne_ came to school!? She could beat up _all_ the teachers!"

Frisk noticed that while she was lost in thought, she had walked off on accident, leaving the kid behind under the dripping water. He didn't seem to care, though.

"Ummm, maybe she wouldn't beat up the teachers…" he sheepishly continued, as he rejoined the human. "She's too cool to ever hurt an innocent person!"

Oh, how Frisk wished that this was true.

* * *

At the end of the hallway was an opening to a much more spacious area, where the falling water was not present. Through it, the sound of the howling wind echoed.

Frisk looked off into the distance. Countless shimmering crystals were situated on the ceiling, their lights seen as mere pinpricks from her location.

And far away… a city was located, with countless buildings and structures. It looked far larger than the small town that Frisk had spent her entire life in.

One structure towered over the rest: a massive, elegantly built citadel. Frisk had thought buildings like those only existed in fairy tales.

The top of the castle's towers ended in steep, shining peaks. From her location, she could tell that the huge entrance was wide open, inviting all to come inside.

"That's the capital!" the kid exclaimed, noticing the human's interest. "And see that huge building? That's the king's castle! Isn't it cool?"

The child simply nodded back as she continued to stare off, a chill running down her back.

The castle looked so distant. The task of making her way through the underground in order to get there seemed so daunting.

Yet Frisk was determined that she was going to get there. As she set her sights on her eventual destination, a burst of resolve coursed through the fibers of her being.

"C'mon!" the kid beckoned. "We won't get to see Undyne again if we dawdle for too long!"

Frisk reluctantly tore her eyes away from the distant scenery and walked on, the monster kid waddling along right behind her.

* * *

The end of the area led to the entrance of another narrow hallway.

As Frisk walked on forward, she noticed that it was a dead end… or so she initially thought.

As the child got closer, she saw that the back wall was only a ledge. If she was taller, she would probably be able to grab the ledge and scale over it.

The kid ran up to the ledge and took note of the situation. "Yo, this ledge is way too steep…"

He turned back to the human. "Yo, you want to see Undyne, right? Put up your umbrella and climb onto my shoulders."

A second bucket of umbrellas was present, likely the place to return them.

Water was still spilling down, but not as fiercely as it was before. So Frisk felt free to put the umbrella down and place it into the bucket.

The kid kneeled down to let the child place her feet on his shoulders. This gave her the boost in height she needed to grab the ledge with a firm grasp.

She removed her feet from the kid's shoulders and placed them on the side of the ledge. With several kicking motions, the child gained enough leverage to hoist the rest of her body onto the top of the ledge.

"Hey, that worked out," the kid commented. "You weighed a little less than I expected."

Frisk turned around and looked down at him.

"Do you need some help?" she asked.

"Yo, it's fine! Go on ahead." the kid exclaimed. "Don't worry about me! I always find a way to get through!"

The monster began to leave, tripping over in the process, but got right back up and rushed off to find another way.

Frisk waved goodbye, the feeling of loneliness washing over her again.

* * *

A howling draft blew through the cavern.

The sound of the muffled rain beating down on the cavetop, combined with the distant tune of the music box that continued to play on… it filled Frisk with determination.

She looked ahead and noticed a bridge made up the path ahead, seemingly suspended over nothingness. There were two levels, one being built below the other.

Shadows were cast over it, as the area was sparsely lit.

As she stepped onto the bridge and began walking forwards, she could not help but to feel sick with apprehension, for some reason. Something about her surroundings was bothering her.

Then… it hit her.

It was the perfect place for an ambush.

In front of her, a glowing circle formed on the bridge. She froze in place as more glowing spots appeared, surrounding the ground around her.

As terror gripped hold of the child, she found herself unable to move.

She was right to be, as magical spears suddenly jutted up right out of them, flying off towards the ceiling.

The child frantically looked around, noticing that on a level below her, a figure in shimmering armor stood.

Uh oh.

Her heart was filled with dread. Blood pumped faster through her veins, her breathing growing more desperate. Her body was preparing for one thing: getting away from Undyne.

As more spots appeared, Frisk snapped to her senses and ran off, keeping an eye on the ground.

She immediately halted when a row of spots appeared in front of her. Once the spears had shot up from them, she scrambled forward to avoid the next attack.

Frisk came to a realization. If she ran too fast and found that a spot suddenly appears in front of her, she might trip by stopping too quickly. Probably right into a spear.

So despite common sense telling her to flee as fast as possible, she slowed down a little, forcing herself to be careful.

The path of the bridges soon dissolved into a massive lattice. It seemed to be built like a huge maze, as were plenty of redundant pathways and dead ends. She was forced to rapidly shift her attention between the the ground in front of her and the direction where she was heading.

The attacks were becoming more frenzied and furious, as Undyne desperately furthered the attempt to strike the child with her spears. Her frustration was becoming evident, as her stomping lodged splinters from the bridge that she was continuing her pursuit from.

Undyne managed to get a hit in when the child was trying to discern the path. Her foot had been extended above a glowing spot when the spear shot out from it.

Frisk winced in pain, deciding that the slower pace she was using would no longer work. Instead, she resorted to a simpler, more reckless tactic: furious, unrestrained running, with little concern for where she was going.

This strategy would prove somewhat successful. The child had been hit twice more, and got lost more times than she would care to admit… but at least she was heading somewhere.

* * *

Eventually, Frisk entered the path of what seemed like the exit.

But as it turned out… it wasn't an exit at all. Rather, it was the end of the bridge, where only the abyss extended further.

Yet, to what appeared to be good fortune, the spear attacks came to an end.

She turned around, noticing that Undyne appeared to have left. The child closed her eyes and took a deep breath as the sound of clanging armor faded off into the distance.

And then she nearly had a heart attack at the sound of a loud slam.

Frisk jolted around and saw why Undyne had seemed to walk away. She had jumped from the bottom level to the top one, and was now slowly approaching.

The child's glanced backwards at the dead end. There was no place to run. Undyne had trapped her, like a predator closing in on its prey.

Frisk's heart was frantically beating. Tears formed in her eyes as she tugged at her shirt, a pained whimper spilling from her mouth.

The warrior came to a stop right in front of her, huffing in frustration. Her tall, imposing figure cast fear into the child's heart.

Frisk's knees collapsed from under her. As she sat down onto the floor, the child held out her arms in a pleading fashion. Perhaps Undyne wouldn't attack her if she acted like a poor, innocent girl…

Undyne's eye glowed brightly as spears formed, floating in the air above the space between them. A loud hum filled the air.

From behind her helmet, a savage grin formed on Undyne's face. She let out a wordless cry of triumph as she cast down the spears straight down.

They fell at an alarmingly swift rate, striking the bridge with great force. In fact… they flew right through it, marking a very large crack in its structure.

The side of the bridge Frisk was standing shook, then started to fall away. The child lost her balance as the sound of wood snapping apart filled the air. She screamed at the top of her lungs, but no one would come to save her.

The world around Frisk faded to black as she fell.

* * *

A long time ago…

A young goat-headed monster was playfully running around the ruins.

The Whimsun he was chasing was desperately flying away from its pursuer. The young monster was laughing as the poor creature was being terrorized.

A scream rung through the air from far away.

The goat monster stopped right in his tracks. The Whimsun took this opportunity to get away.

The monster ran off, looking for the source of the cry. He reached a room where a beam of sunlight from the surface shone.

"It sounds like it came from over here…" he nervously muttered to himself.

He noticed the injured human girl lying on the ground.

The monster stumbled over to the human's side. "Oh! You've fallen down, haven't you…"

He got a closer look. The human had fair skin, brown shoulder-length hair, and a striped shirt, just like the one he was wearing.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

He got a pained grunt in response.

The monster lifted the human's arm. "Here… get up…"

With his help, the human arose from the spot from where she had fell. Her tired, aching body wearily leaned onto the monster's shoulder.

"What's your name?" the monster asked.

The human said something that was hard to make out.

"Chara, huh?" the young monster said. "That's a nice name."

He smiled.

"My name is…"

" _…_ _is… "_

 **"…** _**i… s…"**_

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Ah yes, the ballet shoes. Not even the most determined of monsters can stand up to their might.**

 **I've quoted it on my profile, and I'll do it again here:**

 **Why is Onionsan even here. Why did I make this character —from Toby Fox himself**

 **Also, dog. That is all.**

 **We will catch up with Frisk… next time. Next time! _NEXT TIME!_**


	12. Dummy!

Frisk awoke on a bed of golden flowers.

As she lay on her side, examining her dark, damp surroundings, she tried to remember how she had gotten there. Slowly, everything came back to her: the chase… the bridge being destroyed… the fall into the abyss.

And yet she was still alive. Either that, or the afterlife wasn't very impressive.

With a groan, the child rolled over onto her back, a dull ache from the spear attacks still passing through her body.

If she still felt pain, that meant that she should still be alive. That was somewhat reassuring.

The child wondered… how long had she been unconscious? Well, it didn't really matter.

She stared up at the ceiling of the cavern, listening to the sound of the flowing water around her and trying to find some comfort within the flowers.

She tried to think of something nice to tear her mind away from the dreary thoughts that filled her head, but it didn't work. Her thoughts would continue to cloud with gloom.

Soon, the child shifted back onto her side, her body starting to tremble. She had come to a dreadful conclusion.

She was going to die down here, far away from the surface. The underground would be her grave.

As nice as monsters were, they wanted to be free from the underground… and they would need to collect human souls in order for that to happen. Frisk's soul was no exception.

She couldn't keep running away from Undyne forever. Eventually, she would be cornered… and then, Undyne would kill her. And even if by a miracle, she was able to get away from Undyne… there were others like her, weren't there?

What would Frisk do when she was confronted with a relentless killer? She still didn't know the answer.

Frisk drew her legs closer to her torso, folding them as tightly as she could against her. She buried her face into her hands.

She felt so hopeless. Hopeless and alone…

The child huddled closer around herself, suddenly feeling a chill run down her spine. Instinctively, she uncovered her face and crossed her arms, trying to conserve more heat. Right now, all she wanted to do was lie here forever, being too afraid of what would await her if she left her spot.

Her eyes were swiftly filling with tears.

The child's entire body was shivering. It was taking all of her effort to not break down into a bawling mess. She was too old for that. Kids of her age weren't supposed to cry.

Frisk grit her teeth together, so that she wouldn't scream or cry out.

But she couldn't prevent the tears from from flowing down. The fear… the uncertainty… the pain… it all came out.

The child remained this way for a few minutes.

She couldn't do this forever, though. So she closed her eyes, taking some deep breaths in order to calm herself down.

"You're going to be alright…" she quietly whispered to herself. "This is just a bad dream…"

Somehow, she found the strength to rise up from her spot. She sat among the flowers, whimpering and sniffling uncontrollably. She let the tears roll down her face, dripping off of her chin into her lap.

A sound came from her backpack. The child turned to it, realizing that it was the sound of her phone ringing.

Frisk wiped the tears from her face with her sleeve and fetched the phone from her bag, with some reluctance. Her finger hovered over the button for a second before she pressed it.

* * *

A familiar, cheery voice greeted her from the other end. "HELLO! THIS IS PAPYRUS!"

"H… Hello…" Frisk could barely raise her voice to more than a whisper.

"WHERE WERE YOU?" Papyrus exclaimed. "I'VE BEEN CALLING YOU FOR HOURS, AND YOU DIDN'T PICK UP! I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT YOU!"

"I-I'm sorry…" the child mumbled. "It's just… I… I—"

She abruptly broke down into more tears, with restrained sobs leaving her throat.

"OH NO!" Papyrus shouted. "I'M MAKING MY FRIEND CRY! WHAT HAVE I DONE!?"

"I-it's not your fault!" Frisk choked out. "I... I…"

The child went quiet, save for a few sniffles.

"HMM… YOU DON'T SOUND VERY HAPPY," Papyrus observed. "WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?"

"It's nothing, Papyrus." Of course, this was a lie, but the truth was too hard to swallow.

The skeleton let out a sincere sigh. "YEAH… SOMETIMES, NOTHING BUMS ME OUT TOO."

"WELL, WORRY NOT! I CONSIDER IT MY DUTY TO HELP OUT MY COOL FRIEND. WOULD YOU LIKE A HUG?"

"Yeah…" A comfy hug sounded really good right now. Frisk was especially fond of Toriel's hugs: they felt so tight and warm, so much so that it was always disappointing when she let go.

"THEN… OH, RIGHT. WE'RE ON THE PHONE. SO I'M GOING TO HAVE TO GIVE YOU A HUG IN SPIRIT!"

A few disappointing seconds of silence passed.

"SO, ARE YOU FEELING IT YET?" Papyrus exclaimed.

Frisk felt a little better, but not by very much. Well, it was the thought that counted.

"SERIOUSLY THOUGH, YOU SHOULD CUDDLE WITH SKELETONS MORE OFTEN," Papyrus remarked. "WE'RE VERY SOFT AND FILLED WITH CALCIUM."

"Yeah… I'll keep that in mind," the child said, sniffling between words.

"SO… YOU'RE NOT FEELING MUCH BETTER…" Papyrus noted. "HMM… WHAT WOULD SANS DO?"

Suddenly, an idea came to him. "OH! I KNOW!"

"SO, MY BROTHER WAS SLACKING OFF YESTERDAY, AS USUAL," he began. "HE WAS HANGING AROUND HIS STATION, AND NOT DOING HIS WORK."

"Oh?"

"SO I TOLD HIM TO PUT A LITTLE MORE _BACKBONE_ INTO IT!"

Frisk realized that Papyrus was telling a joke. She brought her mouth into a grin.

"HA HA…" Papyrus continued. "OH, WHO AM I KIDDING? THAT WAS TERRIBLE."

"I liked it…" Frisk admitted.

It was a pretty lame joke. But corny jokes were still sorta funny.

"SO, WHERE ARE YOU?" Papyrus asked. "I'M NOT ASKING FOR MY FRIEND, BY THE WAY. I'M ASKING FOR… ANOTHER FRIEND."

Frisk glanced around. She didn't have any idea where she was.

"I'm sitting down on a bunch of flowers," she said. Well, it was a start.

"DO ANY OF THEM TALK?" The skeleton asked. "SAY HI FOR ME!"

The child shuddered for a moment, the memory of her discussion with Sans back at Grillby's coming back to her.

"Umm… okay. Hello!"

The flowers below her were silent. Which was a good thing. A _very_ good thing.

Papyrus continued on. "ANYWAYS, DO YOU SEE ANYTHING ELSE?"

Frisk peered off into the distance, trying to make out her surroundings.

"I see… piles of something," she reported. "I can't tell, but…"

"DOES IT LOOK LIKE GARBAGE?"

She took a closer look. Now that he had mentioned it… the piles did look like that they were made of garbage. "…I think so?"

"OH, I KNOW WHERE YOU ARE!" the skeleton exclaimed, with recognition. "YOU'RE CLOSE TO WATERFALL'S GARBAGE DUMP!"

"Garbage dump?" Frisk wondered why the monsters would leave all their trash here in the water.

"WHEN TRASH FALLS DOWN FROM THE SURFACE, IT USUALLY ENDS UP THERE, IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER," Papyrus explained. "MOST OF IT'S JUST JUNK, BUT SOME PEOPLE FIND REALLY USEFUL JUNK IN THERE!"

Oh. It was human stuff. Maybe she would be able to find something she could use there.

"WELL… IF YOU'RE GOING THERE, I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT TO DO!" Papyrus declared. "I ALWAYS MAKE PEOPLE FEEL BETTER... WHEN THEY'RE _DOWN IN THE DUMPS!"_

The child burst into laughter.

Papyrus let out a groan. "I'VE SPENT TOO LONG WITH MY BROTHER TODAY. PLEASE FORGET I SAID THAT."

But at least Frisk wasn't crying anymore. So somehow… this was working?

"I HAVE TO ADMIT… THESE AWFUL PUNS ARE WORKING," he continued. "MAYBE MY BROTHER REALLY WAS ONTO SOMETHING."

The skeleton thought about that for a second.

"…WAIT, WHAT AM I SAYING?" he realized. "WHY AM I AGREEING WITH MY BROTHER? AM I EVEN ALLOWED TO DO THAT?"

He decided to end the matter there.

"So… do you go here very often?" the child asked.

"NOT REALLY," Papyrus replied. "I DON'T NEED MORE GARBAGE. AFTER ALL, I'M ALREADY HOUSEMATES WITH A LAZY BAG OF TRASH!"

Frisk took a second to make sure she had heard that correctly. That was rude of him, to call his brother—

"HIS NAME'S TRASHY," the skeleton elaborated. "HE LIVES IN THE GARBAGE CAN."

Oh. Okay.

"HA! DID YOU REALLY THINK THAT I DIDN'T NAME MY GARBAGE?"

Nobody that Frisk knew other than Papyrus had named their garbage, so… yes. She did.

"ACTUALLY, NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT IT…" the skeleton continued, "UNDYNE VISITS THAT PLACE QUITE OFTEN. THAT'S BECAUSE IT'S CLOSE TO HER HOUSE!"

"Wait, what!?" The child tensed up, because she was in "enemy territory", or something like that. Already, her rate of her heartbeat had shot up.

"UNFORTUNATELY, I DON'T THINK SHE'S HOME RIGHT NOW. SHE'S USUALLY PATROLLING DURING THIS TIME… A SHAME, ISN'T IT?"

The child let out a sigh of relief. She wouldn't have to deal with Undyne for now.

"HMM… SPEAKING OF UNDYNE… IT SEEMS THAT YOU TWO AREN'T ON THE BEST OF TERMS."

Frisk frowned. The two of them really weren't.

"BUT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE AN IDEA!" the skeleton eagerly exclaimed. "WHEN UNDYNE GOES BACK TO HER HOUSE… WE SHOULD BOTH GO THERE AND HANG OUT WITH HER! I THINK YOU TWO WOULD BE GREAT PALS!

"Uhh… yeah." Maybe they would, if it wasn't for the whole chasing and murdering thing.

"LET'S MEET UP AT HER HOUSE LATER!"

The idea that Papyrus was proposing brought about mixed feelings. On one hand, Undyne did want to kill her, and a hang-out would probably end up horribly.

But even in the darkness… there was a glimmer of hope. Something to grab ahold of, in order to not lose her grip on the world. And disappointing Papyrus wasn't something that she wanted to do.

"Sure," she said. "Let's do that."

"GREAT! I'LL CALL YOU AGAIN WHEN WE'RE READY—"

"Oh!" Frisk interrupted. "I want to ask you something."

"…WHAT IS IT?"

"Can we talk with each other like this again?" she asked.

"I'LL BE GLAD TO TALK WITH YOU ANYTIME, FRISK!" Papyrus replied. "IN FACT… FEEL FREE TO VISIT ME IN SNOWDIN ANYTIME!"

That didn't sound like a bad idea, actually.

"Thank you…" the child said. "Well, I'll talk with you later."

"BYE FOR NOW!"

… Click.

* * *

Papyrus hung up, storing his phone away.

In front of him, a flower popped up through the snow.

"Howdy, Papyrus!" Flowey greeted. "So, did you find out where Frisk is?"

The skeleton was all too eager to provide an answer. "OH, SHE'S IN THE GARBAGE DUMP."

That was strange, since the dump was a considerable distance from the place where the flower had last seen her.

Granted, those bridges had prevented him from going further, so that probably had something to do with it.

"Got it!" Flowey told the skeleton. "Thanks, friend!"

He retreated back into the ground, burrowing his way back to Waterfall.

* * *

The child sat in the dark. She had certainly felt much better, but she still couldn't find the courage to leave her spot.

Since if she did, she was going to suffer… all on her own…

No. That wasn't true. She wasn't alone.

She had found great friends in Papyrus and Sans. They had helped her out a lot, since she had been nice to them. And they were nice back, too.

Most importantly… they cared for her.

And she had made lots of other friends down here, too.

Napstablook had met someone new. Snowdrake had found success in his jokes. Greater Dog had a fun time playing with someone. Shyren had learned how to sing.

And maybe… just maybe… she could even befriend Undyne, as well.

Suddenly, her hopes were renewed. She felt very strongly that she was going to make her way out of here.

Frisk was able to muster the determination to push on forward, despite the odds set against her. The pain was beginning to fade, as her soul was being restored by the power of her determination alone.

The child found the strength to pick herself up, soon confidently standing on her own two feet.

And then… while within the darkness, standing among the golden flowers… a huge smile arose on her face.

Because whatever the underground would throw at her… she wasn't going to have to endure it alone.

* * *

Frisk looked around, trying to figure out where to go.

She quickly figured out that the place where she was standing was a small strip of land poking out from the water.

The child shuddered to think of what would have happened had she landed a little to the side. She would have fell into the water and possibly drowned…

Frisk shook her head. She probably shouldn't be thinking about things like that.

The child stared into the water. Even though she didn't know how to swim, the water didn't look very deep. She could probably get away with wading through it.

Her foot nearly touched the surface of the water before she recalled that she was wearing her shoes.

These shoes had been a gift for her eleventh birthday, since the shoes she had been wearing weren't in very good condition. And these shoes were actually of much higher quality than the shoes she had worn in the past, so she really liked them.

And if she walked around in the water with them on, they would probably be ruined. Plus, they would fill with water and be rather cumbersome to walk around in.

So the child removed her shoes and her socks, storing them inside her bag.

She dipped her bare foot into the water, testing the temperature. It was really cold. Not freezing… but chilly, like a pond during the early days of spring, after all the snow had melted away.

Frisk slowly submerged her entire foot in the water, touching the smooth stone floor. She put in another foot to join it. She shivered in place, waiting for her nerves to become adjusted to the temperature of the water.

As she began to walk forwards, she took careful steps, as the depth of the water was increasing. Eventually, it leveled out above her knees, soaking the hem of her shorts.

Since it appeared that she didn't need to swim, the child felt free to continue through the water.

* * *

Frisk soon noticed the large piles of garbage.

Back on the surface, there was a garbage dump a short distance away from the orphanage. Of course, the children were told to stay away from that place for a multitude of reasons: it was dirty, dangerous, unhealthy, and generally disgusting.

So naturally, there were some kids who went there all the time.

Frisk had only been there once. Key word: once. The sight of things rotting was enough to convince her to stay far away from that place.

The child placed a hand over her nose. It seemed that this garbage dump was not so different.

Still, her curiosity took ahold of her. She observed the trash, noting that there were a few brands that she had recognized. After all, Frisk had walked a lot on the streets in her later years, and the streets were filled with trash. She had stopped sometimes to observe it, and take some back to the orphanage on occasion. Of course, it was just trash, so she didn't think of it very much.

Further within the dump, the sound of flowing water grew louder. The source was a waterfall that seemed to flow from the ceiling of the cavern.

Frisk took a moment to observe it. Occasionally, a piece of trash flowed through, falling into the bottomless abyss below. It was an endless cycle of worthless garbage. Oddly, it was satisfying to some extent.

As the child began to walk away from this sight, she felt something yank on her foot.

Frisk looked down and found that her foot had been caught on a vine. She confusedly looked around, not seeing any other vines growing around in the garbage dump.

She tried to walk away, but it seemed to be tangled around her foot. Which meant that she was stuck.

Instead, she shook her foot wildly until the vine eventually came off, floating away in the water.

* * *

The child turned around the corner, finding that the garbage dump continued further.

She continued to keep a close eye on the ground, to make sure she didn't step on anything sharp. There were a few coins scattered about, left by the monsters who visited the dump, so Frisk made sure to pick those up.

She noticed something strange in the water by her feet: a small, pink object. She rolled up her sleeves and fished it out, finding out that it was a bent key.

The child placed it into her pocket, since it was rather interesting.

Among the garbage sat some larger objects, one of them being a rusty old bike. They were an occasional sight around her town, but the orphanage never got one. It was a shame, since Frisk always wanted to learn how to ride one. Walking around to get everywhere got tiresome.

There was also a single unlabelled cooler. In it sat a few bags labelled "Astronaut Food".

It was food… but it was food found in a garbage dump. Frisk followed her common sense and left it alone.

* * *

Among the piles of trash was a single, white training dummy. Frisk had recalled seeing something like it before… somewhere.

Frisk stared at it. She thought about hitting the dummy, but that wouldn't have been very nice.

As the child walked a fair distance away from it, she heard a splash from behind her.

She turned around. The dummy was shaking, but there was no one around that could have possibly moved it.

Suddenly, its body turned a displeasing shade of orange, a pair of menacing eyes appearing on its head.

The dummy shot up into the air, quickly flying to block the path in front of her.

"Hahaha… " a voice was heard from the floating dummy. "Too intimidated to fight me, huh!?"

Frisk took a few steps backwards in surprise. Clearly, she wasn't expecting this.

"My official title is Mad Dummy!" it introduced. "But I am not your average, run-of-the-mill dummy! I am a ghost that lives inside a dummy!"

Another ghost? Like… Napstablook?

"My cousin used to live inside a dummy, too," Mad Dummy continued. "Until… "

" _YOU CAME ALONG!"_ it roared, catching Frisk off-guard.

The pieces of the dummy's body began to separate, the head floating slightly off from its body, which in turn had split into halves. Mad Dummy seemed unaffected by this, however.

"They were a shy sort," the dummy explained rather calmly. "They were living a lonely life in the ruins… when you talked to them, they thought they were in for a nice chat."

Oh yeah… that dummy back at the ruins. That's why it was so familiar.

"But the things you _said...!_ "

Frisk tried to recall what she had said. It had felt like such a long time ago… which was funny, since she had only been in the underground for only… a week or so?

"Horrible. Shocking! _UNBELIEVABLE!"_ the ghost shrieked. "It spooked them right out of their dummy!"

She didn't recall saying anything _that_ awful.

Mad Dummy was now _fuming_. Cotton flew off from its plush body as it violently trembled, its body color becoming red with rage.

Frisk could see exactly why the name was "Mad" Dummy.

" _Human!"_ it cried. "I'll scare your soul out of your body!"

* * *

A battle box formed in the space between them.

"Dummies!" Mad Dummy screamed. "Attack!"

Smaller, white dummies lined up at the top of the box. For some reason, they were all wobbling around, since they were off-balanced.

The ghost floated closer to the box, trying to figure out what was wrong. "Huh? What is this!?"

Then it remembered something. "Oh. Right. I need to calibrate the bullet board."

The box slowly tilted, the top edge pointing away from Frisk and towards the Mad Dummy. As it did so, the dummies stopped rocking around, standing upright and ready to attack.

"Much better!" Mad Dummy exclaimed.

It turned to Frisk. "Now, human! You'll rue the day you messed with my cousin!"

The child looked upwards towards the hovering dummy. Something told her that it would be pointless to try to talk to this one.

"Don't even think about fighting back!" it shouted. "Even if you tried to attack my vessel, you'll never hurt me! I'm incorporeal, you _dummy!"_

Mad Dummy glanced around for a moment.

"Wait, is dummy a compliment?" it muttered to itself. "Whatever. Whatever! _WHATEVER!_ "

During the ghost's ranting, the dummies within the board were listlessly standing around, wondering what to do.

" _Hey!"_ Mad Dummy shouted, startling a few of them. "Shouldn't you guys be attacking already!?"

The dummies shuffled back into line and started to fire white spheres at Frisk's soul. These spheres flew beyond the confines of the box, which meant that due to the box's angle, Frisk had to take a step back to prevent these attacks from hitting her feet.

After their attack, they retreated beyond the box's boundaries, as more dummies arose from another edge to continue the onslaught.

As a bunch of dummies fired from the bottom edge of the board, their attacks flew up into the air, several of them hitting the Mad Dummy that was bossing them around.

" _Owwww, you dummies!_ " the ghost cried. "Watch where you're aiming your magic attacks!"

The dummy nervously looked around and noticed that it had said that right in front of the human.

It glared at her. " _Hey! You!_ Forget I said anything about magic!"

* * *

"I'll defeat you and take your soul!" Mad Dummy exclaimed, during its next attack. "Then, I'll use your soul to cross the barrier!"

The dummy struck a pose, despite its lack of arms or legs. "I'll stand in the window of a fancy store!"

"Then everything I want will be — _YOWWWW!"_

A crowd of magical bullets had missed Frisk's soul, crashing directly into the dummy during his monologue.

Mad Dummy spat out some furious, incomprehensible gibberish. It began to fly around, swerving left and right, but it was still in the range of the dummies' attacks.

Frisk dared to ask a question. "What does this have to do with your cousin, then?"

"Huh?" the dummy said, being a bit distracted. "Yeah, I guess that'll avenge them. What was their name again...?"

The dummy tried to shrug, which was difficult to pull off without any arms.

"Whatever. Whatever! _WHATEVER!"_ it shouted. "I'll recall it after I _destroy_ you!"

* * *

"Futile. Futile! _FUTILE!_ "

As Mad Dummy flailed around in the air, the barrage of magical bullets continued.

A crowd of dummies had formed at the bottom edge of the box, all firing at once. Fortunately for Frisk, her soul had managed to dodge them all. Unfortunately for the Mad Dummy…

"Foolish. Foolish! _FOOL_ — _AAAUGH!"_ it cried, as countless magical bullets smashed right into its incorporeal body.

Somehow, the dummy was now even more enraged than before.

"Hey guys!" it squawked.

Dummies popped up around the entire board's edges.

"Dummies. Dummies! _DUMMIES_!" the ghost cried. "Remember how I said _not_ to shoot at me?"

The dummies shuffled around uncomfortably.

"Well... _FAILURES!"_ Mad Dummy howled. " _You're all failures!"_

It shook with unbridled rage, while the dummies were staring back with disbelief. " _YOU'RE FIRED! YOU'RE ALL BEING REPLACED!"_

The dummies dejectedly sunk out of the box.

When the last of them left, Mad Dummy began to flail about, a maniacal cackle flying through the air. "Hahaha. Hahaha! _HAHAHA!_ "

The dummy confidently scowled at the human. "Now you'll see my true power: relying on people that aren't garbage!"

* * *

Mechanical whirs filled the room. Frisk's eyes anxiously darted around, trying to identify the source of the noise, but to no avail.

"Dummy Bots!" Mad Dummy called. " _Magic Missile!_ "

The dummies appeared in the box were different, as these were mechanized. Instead of shooting spheres, they fired missiles.

And as Frisk unfortunately found out, they were _homing_ missiles.

One of them loudly exploded as it struck her soul, sending a wave of pain through her body.

Fortunately, her soul was able to stay ahead of the rest of them. Eventually, the missiles would stop targeting it and fly off into another direction.

As more dummy bots appeared, Frisk realized that if she maneuvered her soul in just the right way, then…

* * *

Mad Dummy squawked as it narrowly swerved out the way of a magic missile.

A thought occurred to the ghost. Could it be that these replacements were actually awful at their job?

A large faceful of magic missile would convince it that… yes, the new ones were absolutely terrible.

"N... no way!" the dummy muttered out loud. "These guys are even _worse_ than the other guys!"

It sent a spiteful glare at the dummy bots, preparing to go on a tirade.

" _Hey!_ What are you guys doing!? _You guys are garbage! Absolute garbage! Why, I oughtta—_ "

The dummy bots looked to each other and silently nodded in agreement.

A few seconds later, Mad Dummy received another faceful of magic missile.

"Grr… _get outta here!_ " the ghost shrieked, shuddering with red-hot fury. "Now. Now! _NOW!_ "

The dummy bots sank out of the box, a little relieved to be dismissed from their job.

The dummy stared at the empty bullet board, realizing that in its haste to get rid of the dummy bots… it had forgotten that there weren't any more dummies to replace them.

"Who cares. Who cares! _WHO CARES!"_ Mad Dummy cried. " _I DON'T NEED FRIENDS!"_

A knife made of magic formed at the dummy's side, floating in mid-air. It spun around by itself, the blade pointing directly at Frisk's soul.

" _I'VE GOT KNIVES!"_ the dummy exclaimed with outrage.

The knife shot into the box. It didn't move terribly quickly, however, and the child's soul was able to get out of the way.

Mad Dummy stopped shaking and glanced around sheepishly. It turned out that it didn't have knives. It had _a knife._

"I'm... out of knives," it pointed out.

"But it doesn't matter!" The dummy started to violently sway around again. "You can't hurt me and I can't hurt you!"

"So… you'll be stuck fighting me… forever. Forever! _FOREVER!_ "

Mad Dummy began to loudly cackle, the parts of its body aimlessly flying around like objects in a fierce storm.

Soon, the cackling elevated to frenzied, demented laughter.

Frisk grit her teeth and placed her hands over her ears. She considered walking away, and was about to do so until the laughing came to a sudden halt.

The dummy had been interrupted by more magic attacks. It glanced upwards, noticing that a shower of white tears was beginning to fall over it.

"Wh… What the heck is this!?" it questioned. "Acid rain!?"

Mad Dummy put on an expression of irritation. "Listen up, human! You may have escaped me today, but—"

A large tear landed on the dummy's head, causing it to convulse in pain.

"Oh, _forget it!_ " it exclaimed. "I'm outta here!"

And with a woosh, the dummy zipped away.

The child looked around with curiosity. Her expression brightened when she saw where the tears had coming from.

"Napstablook!" she exclaimed. She didn't expect to see him again after she had left the ruins, although she had the suspicion that Napstablook didn't actually live there.

The ghost timidly floated down to her level.

"hello, frisk… sorry, i interrupted you, didn't i?" he said. "as soon as i came over, your friend immediately left…"

He glanced off in the direction where Mad Dummy had flew off. "oh no… you guys looked like you were having fun… your friend was laughing so hard…"

Napstablook began to float away dejectedly. "i just wanted to say hi… oh no…"

Frisk took a few steps towards him, raising out a hand.

"No no, it's fine!" she exclaimed. "I was in a bit of trouble, but you helped me out! Thank you!"

Napstablook looked back up, his mood having improved. "oh… okay…"

"Do you live around here, Napstablook?" the child asked.

"oh…you don't have to call me napstablook…" the ghost murmured. "you can call me blooky if you want to… all my friends call me that…"

"Okay, Blooky!" Frisk liked that name. She thought it was cute.

Napstablook floated off the the side, giving the child a view of the path ahead of her. "well… i live right over here… um… feel free to 'come with' if you want…"

"but no pressure…" he continued. "i understand if you're busy… it's fine… no worries… just thought i'd offer…"

Although the last detour the child had taken had gone rather strangely, she decided to make time for this one.

"I'll come with you," she said.

"oh… you will…?" the ghost mumbled. "that's great… follow me…"

* * *

The end of the garbage dump was straight ahead. Once they had left it, Frisk took a deep breath, glad to be away from the horrible smell.

The area that they entered contained three paths ahead of them, and more paths to the side as well. Within the room's center was an undisturbed pool of water.

Napstablook continued to float on ahead, taking the middle path.

The child shivered. The floor was awfully cold, despite not being so wet…

She just then remembered. She was barefoot.

"Give me a minute, Blooky," she said. "I need to put my shoes on…"

Napstablook turned back to her. "okay… by the way, my house is up here… just so you know… "

With that, the ghost floated over in the direction of his house, taking the middle path.

After drying off her feet, she took the bag off of her back and found that it was already opened. She could have sworn that she had closed it earlier…

The child put in an arm and dug around for her shoes, but she couldn't find them.

Frisk hastily dumped out everything that she had in her bag. She had her socks, two Nice Creams, the punch cards, the ribbon, the ballet shoes, the stick, a cinnamon bun, a pair of popsicles…

No shoes, though.

She glanced backwards. The only place where she could have lost them was somewhere in the garbage dump. And since there was so much trash there… they would be very difficult to find again.

So they were good as lost. Frisk was really disappointed.

The child picked up the ballet shoes. As much as these shoes bothered her, for some reason… the alternative was going around barefoot. That wouldn't be very fun.

With a sigh, she put the ballet shoes on her feet. They were slightly over-sized for her, but they still fit rather snugly.

These shoes filled her with a strange feeling that was hard to describe. As before, she felt deadly, as if a kick from her feet would reduce a monster to dust. It actually scared her a little.

She balanced on her balls of her feet, trying to get used to the ballet shoes. They were much thinner, and exposed her ankles. More notably, they were made for dancing, something that Frisk was awful at, so they made walking rather awkward. She missed her old ones already.

Still she wondered… did someone take her shoes? Why would someone do that?

* * *

Frisk went to go follow Napstablook, but then she heard a familiar voice coming from the room to her left.

"Ha ha, this is awesome!"

She ran over to see what was going on.

The monster kid was in the air, being carried by a small bird over a disproportionately small gap of water. The bird was struggling to stay afloat, yet it was clear that it wouldn't give up.

"Yo, Frisk!" the kid shouted. "I found a way across!"

The two of them weren't making progress very quickly, however. The monster kid looked down at the water beneath him, realizing that this was the case.

"Uhh… this could take a while…" the kid noted.

He looked back at the human. "So… why don't you go on ahead? I'll catch up."

* * *

Undyne stood at the top of an edge, staring down into a narrow hallway.

Her hand rested on a lantern. She was able to deactivate it, making the room turn from brightly lit to pitch-dark, and vice versa. There was a path to the side, but when the room was darkened… it was nearly undetectable.

And since it appeared to be a dead end… it was the _perfect_ place for an ambush.

As a child, Undyne had stared down there from her perch, turning the light on and off. She would daydream of cornering an enemy here. They would trap themselves by wandering to the hallway's end in the darkness… then as the lights would turn on, she would go in for the kill.

And now… she was going to have the chance.

She had been constantly told that humans were dangerous. If they attacked with the desire to kill, a normal monster would not stand a chance.

But Undyne was no ordinary monster. She was the captain of the royal guard. She had been waiting for her entire life for another human to enter the underground, so that she could acquire one final soul for Asgore.

The warrior had been preparing for such an event for a very long time. Not only had she honed her combat skills to the very edge, she had intensely studied human history, thanks to the collection of her friend. Since she knew of the many tricks and skills that humans could have, no human was going to throw her a curve-ball.

She recounted the words of her monologue again. She had practiced it in the mirror over and over, trying to get it just right, but… there was always a chance that she could mess up. When she would give it for real, there was going to be no room for error.

Undyne couldn't help but feel a little nervous. Heck, she wasn't even sure if she would even survive the encounter… but she knew that she would have to.

Everyone was counting on her, after all. She couldn't let them all down.

At the hallway's end was a single echo flower. It hadn't always been there. Over time, Undyne had watched it grow, as the flower became tall and beautiful.

The heroine grinned. She climbed down into the hallway, an idea popping up in her head.

She leaned down to the echo flower and whispered into it.

"Behind you."

* * *

 **AN:**

 **This and the next chapter was going to be one super long chapter. Then I laid out all the content I wanted to include and 'nope'd right outta there.**

 **Mad Dummy's probably one of my favorite minibosses, because it's a fairly silly fight that uses a unique mechanic.**

 **And yes, this was the best way I could think of to get the Mad Dummy fight to work when I'm using magical floating interfaces to portray battles.**

 **One more thing: Do you guys prefer longer chapters that cover a lot of content such as "Run!", or shorter ones like this one? I'm having some trouble figuring out how to cut up the Hotland portion, so feedback would be helpful.**

 **Next time: we near the end of Waterfall! yAYA!**


	13. Quiet Water

**So I got a new phone. And I figured out how to change the ringtone to the Neutral final boss's laugh.**

 **help meeeeeeee**

* * *

Up ahead, two similarly-shaped houses sat next to each other. One was a pleasant shade of blue, but the other was a faded pink.

Frisk stared at the houses, noticing that their shape sorta resembled Napstablook himself.

She entered into the blue house, seeing that the door was still slightly open.

The house's interior was rather dreary. Cracks were running through the walls, parts of the wooden floor were wearing away, and a large cobweb was sitting in the corner.

Other than that, the house seemed like a cozy place to live.

Near the back of the house, Napstablook was wearing a pair of headphones on his head, focused on an old computer monitor.

The ghost slowly turned around, being a little surprised by Frisk's presence.

"oh... you really came…" he mumbled. "it's not much, but make yourself at home."

The ghost floated over to a pile of CDs on the floor. "uh, do you wanna... listen to some tunes… or something…"

Frisk picked up a disc at random and placed it in the radio sitting nearby. The tune that played was a simple one, yet oddly chilling.

"oh… a classic spooktune…" Napstablook commented. "they don't make songs like this anymore…spooky, huh?"

* * *

Meanwhile, Aaron and Woshua were hanging out outside, just as usual… until they heard the spooktune.

Woshua raised his head, putting on an expression of disgust. "… what the heck is that music?"

Aaron nervously looked around for the source, shivering uncontrollably. "I-I dunno, dude, but it's spookin' me out…"

The spooky music continued.

"… This is worse than Shyren," Woshua remarked.

"No way, Shyren is way less scary," Aaron said, accompanying that statement with a wink.

"If you're so scared, why do you keep winking?" the janitor asked.

"These are winks of fear!" explained Aaron, with yet another wink.

The spooky music wasn't stopping.

"Y'know what?" Woshua said. "Forget it. This beat is too… filthy. I'm leaving."

He waddled off into the dump. "I'm gonna go and reorganize the garbage again."

"Wosh!" Aaron cried. "Wait! Don't leave me!"

But Woshua left anyways. And soon, Aaron was all alone… with the spooktune.

"Is this creepy music my punishment for being creepy?" he whimpered, still nervously quivering.

"Please… stop…" the monster said to no one in particular. "I'll never creep again…"

There was no response.

"Wahhhhh!" Aaron shot up through the ceiling.

* * *

Frisk was spooked by the music, so she turned it off.

"oh… are you hungry…?" Napstablook mumbled. "i can get you something to eat…"

The child was a little hungry, but she wasn't bothered by it too much.

The ghost floated over to the fridge and took something out from it.

"this is a ghost sandwich…" he explained. "do you want to try it…"

"Sure." The child tried to take the sandwich from Napstablook, but her hand passed right through it. And if she couldn't hold it, she probably couldn't eat it, either.

"oh… nevermind…"

The child had an idea. She pulled out the pair of Nice Creams from her bag, handing one to the ghost.

"Want one?" she asked.

"oh… for me? thank you…" Napstablook extended a ghostly appendage to accept the Nice Cream.

Frisk removed the wrapping from her Nice Cream. The wrapper read "Are those claws natural?"

Although she had no claws to speak of, she showed her wrapper to Blooky.

"What does yours read?" she asked.

Napstablook held out his wrapper. "oh… here it is…"

It read "Love yourself! I love you!" Frisk found that adorable.

The two of them ate in silence. After they had finished, Napstablook floated to the center of the room.

"after a great meal i like to lie on the ground and feel like garbage… it's a family tradition…"

Feeling like garbage wasn't Frisk's idea of fun.

"do you want… to join me…?" he asked.

"Sure!"

The ghost began to lie down, his body becoming sprawled over the floor. "okay... follow my lead…"

The child followed suit, lying down on the floor. As she expected… it was really boring. But it was soothing, in a sort of way that was hard to describe.

She soon got up, thanked Napstablook for the time, and bid goodbye, fully refreshed to explore a little more.

* * *

Frisk took a visit to the house of Napstablook's neighbor. The door was locked, but it looked like it had been so for a long time.

Out of curiosity, she pulled out the key she had found earlier, since its appearance was similar to the lock on the door.

To her surprise, despite the key being bent… it fit perfectly. She turned the key, and the door unlocked. She knew that she shouldn't be breaking into other people's houses, but curiosity was getting the best of her.

The child slipped inside, finding the light switch and turning it on.

The first thing that caught her eye when she entered was that entire interior was a vibrant shade of pink: the walls, the floors, even the furniture. Large, five-pointed stars were painted all over the walls. A poster depicting a dancing human couple was placed on the back wall, close to the neatly made bed.

If Frisk had not found the key in the garbage dump, she would have thought that someone was still living here, since it was in such good condition.

Five books with identical appearances were strewn across the floor. Frisk picked one up and began to read.

* * *

" _Dear Diary: Shyren's sister 'fell down' recently. It's sad. Without her sister to speak for her... she's become more reclusive than ever."_

" _So I reached out to her, and told her... that she, Blooky, and I should all perform together sometime. She seemed to like that idea."_

* * *

The rest of the pages of the diary were blank, so Frisk moved on to the next one.

* * *

" _Dearer Diary: I like to buy a new diary for every entry I make. I love to collect diaries."_

* * *

Again, the rest of the pages were blank. Frisk was sensing a pattern here, so she moved on to the next.

* * *

" _Dearest Diary: Our cousin left the farm to become a training dummy. That leaves just Blooky and I."_

" _Blooky asked me if I was going to try to become corporeal, too. He sounded so… resigned…"_

" _Come on, Blooky. You know I'd never leave you behind. And besides... I'd never find the kind of body I'm looking for, anyway."_

* * *

Yet this house seemed abandoned, despite the cheery decor.

What happened?

* * *

" _My Darling Diary: I met someone... interesting today. Last week I posted that advertisement for my Human Fanclub. Today was our first meeting. Only one other person came."_

" _Honestly, she's a dork. And she's obsessed with these awful cartoons. But she's kind of funny, too... I want to see her again."_

* * *

The child grinned. Wherever Napstablook's neighbor was… they would probably be excited if they knew that a human was in their house right now.

* * *

" _Diary… My dear: She surprised me with something today. Sketches of a body that she wants to create for me... a form beyond my wildest fantasies."_

" _If I became corporeal in a form like that, I could finally feel like... 'myself.' After all, there's no way I can be a star the way I am now."_

" _Sorry, Blooky. My dreams can't wait for anyone…"_

* * *

As she finished the last diary, a voice came from behind her.

"how did you get into my cousin's house…?"

Frisk turned around and noticed that Napstablook was peeking inside.

"Oh… I'm sorry," Frisk apologized. "Should I be leaving?"

"no… it's fine… i just thought that since the lights were on… that…" The ghost didn't finish that thought.

As Napstablook floated in to join her, Frisk decided to take a seat on the bed. It was fairly comfortable, more so than the floor of Napstablook's house.

"So… you're here all alone?" she asked, since it was clear that his cousin had left for greater things.

Napstablook's gaze turned to the floor. "yeah…since my family left for other jobs…"

The ghost let out a sigh, staring off into the distance. "but it's fine… things are pretty quiet around here anyways…"

The child realized that, just like his cousin, she was going to leave Napstablook behind, since she was heading towards the barrier… so he was going to be all alone again.

A thought occurred to her. Actually… did she really have to leave the underground? She had plenty of friends down here. Life wouldn't sound so bad.

She dismissed that idea, since it sounded ridiculous. The underground beyond the ruins was too hostile a place for a human.

"hmmm... i should probably try to make friends with my neighbor, undyne…" Napstablook pondered. "she's kind of scary, but i feel like i'm always too late to make friends… i should at least try…"

The child's attention turned back to Blooky.

"So what do you do around here?" she asked.

"oh… i work on music in my spare time… but i work at the blook family snail farm… i'm the only employee…"

"in fact… we can go to the farm and play a game…" he suggested. "it's called thundersnail…do you want to play?"

"Okay!" Games sounded like fun.

* * *

Three snails sat on a race track.

The yellow snail was stuck on its back. Its shell was on fire, somehow.

"oh… looks like you encouraged your snail too much…" Napstablook noted. "all that pressure to succeed… really got to her…"

Frisk stared at the flaming snail in silence. Perhaps she had overdone it a tad.

* * *

The child waved goodbye to Blooky, as he continued to tend to the snails on his farm.

She returned to the room that bordered the dump, and then took a path to her left. This path led into a hallway, with an alcove in the wall.

Frisk entered it, finding that a little shop had been set up, run by an old tortoise monster.

"Woah there! A visitor!" the tortoise exclaimed, noting that Frisk was walking by.

He invited the child closer. "I'm Gerson! Nice to meet 'ya! Why don't you stick around for a chat?"

Frisk pulled up one of the stools by the wall and took a seat by the counter.

"So… I've been around a long time," Gerson stated. "Maybe too long. Studying history sure is easy when you've lived through so much of it yourself! Wa ha ha!"

As Frisk observed the cave wall behind Gerson, a symbol painted on the wall caught her attention. It resembled the one on Toriel's dress, and the dress from her by extension.

"What's that?" Frisk asked, pointing to the symbol.

Gerson looked over his shoulder. "Eh? You don't know what that is? What are they teaching you kids in school nowadays...?"

"That's the Delta Rune, the emblem of our kingdom," he continued. "The Kingdom… of Monsters."

Gerson let out a hearty laugh. "Great name, huh? It's as I always say… Ol' King Fluffybuns can't name for beans!"

"Fluffybuns?" Frisk asked.

Gerson leaned back in his chair. "King Fluffybuns? He's a friendly, happy-go-lucky kind of guy… If you keep walking around long enough, you'll probably meet him. He loves to walk around and talk to people."

The king sounded like a really nice person. Papyrus had claimed that he was a fluffy pushover, and what Gerson had said continued to support that. Yet there was something that wasn't quite adding up…

Oh well. No sense in worrying about it too much.

"Wanna know why I call Dreemurr 'Fluffybuns?'" Gerson continued. "It's a great story!"

He scratched at his chin.

"Actually, I don't remember it," the tortoise admitted. "But if you come back much later, I'm sure I'll have remembered by then."

Gerson pointed back at the symbol on the wall.

"Anyhoo, back to what I was talking 'bout earlier. That emblem actually predates written history. The original meaning has been lost to time…"

His finger pointed to the various parts of the symbol.

"All we know is that the triangles symbolize us monsters below, and the winged circle above symbolizes… somethin' else. Most people say it's the 'angel,' from the prophecy…"

"What's a prophecy?" the child asked. It was a word that Frisk hadn't heard before.

"Why, it's a prediction of events to come!" Gerson replied. '"Here, let me tell you all about it!"

Frisk leaned forwards in interest, propping her arms up on the counter.

"Legend has it, an 'angel' who has seen the surface will descend from above and bring us freedom," Gerson explained. "It says when that happens, the underground will go empty."

The tone of his explanation suddenly shifted. "Lately though, the people have been taking a bleaker outlook… callin' that circle the 'Angel of Death.'"

"A harbinger of destruction, waitin' to 'free' us from this mortal realm… in simpler terms, it means that someone's going to kill us all. Pleasant, isn't it?"

This sent a shudder went down the child's back. That was a terrifying idea…

Gerson lightened up. "In my opinion, when I see that little circle… I jus' think it looks neat! Wa ha ha!"

The tortoise turned back to the child. "Hm… actually, now that I think about it… Undyne just came through here asking about someone who looked just like you."

"…U-Undyne?" the child stuttered. That name still brought her to raise her guard.

"Yeah, she's a local hero around here," Gerson explained. "Through grit and determination alone, she fought her way to the top of the Royal Guard. She's really come a long way since she was a little urchin."

The tortoise leaned his head back and sighed, recalling the good old days. "You know, I used to be a hero myself, back in the old days. Gerson, the Hammer of Justice! Ain't that neat, huh?"

Frisk nodded.

"When she was younger, Undyne would follow me around, to watch me beat up bad guys…" Gerson continued. "Sometimes she'd even try to help!"

"Though, most of the time the folks she attacked weren't bad guys," he said with a chuckle. "It'd be the mailman or something like that."

"Anyhoo, I appreciated it!" he exclaimed, followed by a long, hearty howl of laughter.

Gerson swiftly regained his composure. "Anyways… I'd watch your back, kid. Because… she might just sneak up on you, and then…"

" _BAM!_ " he shouted. "You're dead!"

The child nearly fell off her stool.

"Don't worry!" Gerson said, snickering all the while. "I'm just messing with ya!"

"Also, buy some items," he added. "It might just save your hide!"

Gerson dug into a nearby crate, pulling out some stuff from it. "Here, why don't 'ya have a look? I've got some neat junk for sale!"

He laid out a bag of apples, a few drink cartons, a pair of clouded glasses, and a notebook with pages ripped out of it.

Frisk pointed to the apples. "How much is the entire bag?"

After all, it wouldn't hurt to be prepared.

"You want all the crab-apples!?" the tortoise exclaimed. "I don't think a little squirt like you could finish them all."

She supposed that it was true. And it would be a pain to carry around…

"Here, I'll let you buy three for now," he said, pulling out some apples from the bag. "Then, come right back when you want some more! Wa ha ha!"

Gerson gave the child a smile. "I usually charge these for twenty-five gold each, but I'll give you a little discount! Twenty gold each, just for you!"

Twenty times three… sixty, right? Frisk counted the money and handed it to the tortoise.

"And I might as well toss one of these in too," Gerson said, adding a drink carton in addition to the apples.

"That's a Sea Tea!" he said. "Try using it in a fight… you'll be in for a speedy surprise! Wa ha ha!"

Frisk smiled as she shoved everything into her bag. "Thank you!"

As she got up, Gerson waved goodbye.

"Be careful out there, kid!"

* * *

Moving on, Frisk found herself in another hallway. A waterfall flowed down the walls, spilling a stream over the path in front of her.

A line of echo flowers stood, off by the wayside. They had continuously babbled to each other, and as a result, they repeated a dissonant, jumbled mess. It was actually kinda creepy…

Small and sparkly objects floated through the air. Frisk found them very amusing. In fact, so amusing, that she nearly tripped over a pair of Moldsmals.

These Moldsmals were of a different color, but otherwise they resembled their counterparts from the ruins. It seemed that the approach that worked back there would work here, so Frisk walked away, leaving them behind.

But a few steps later, she heard a burbling noise from right behind her.

The child turned around and noticed that the one of the Moldsmals had changed its location. The battle box was still there, but there weren't any attacks being dropped into it.

Frisk began to approach it, being intrigued by the moving Moldsmal.

Suddenly, the Moldsmal let out a roar.

Frisk jumped backwards as the monster's body shot upwards, growing taller and taller. As the creature revealed its true form, it occurred to Frisk that this was no ordinary Moldsmal.

In fact… it was a Mold _bygg_.

The wiggling, fully-extended monster towered over the child, a single eye glaring down at her.

An attack began. White Moldbygg-like creatures bounded upwards through the bottom edge of the box, launching bullets at the child's soul.

Frisk began to slowly back away. The Moldbygg was covered with gross slime, which she really didn't want to be covered with.

She could have sworn that as she got farther away from the beast, it seemed to approve. It gyrated reservedly, seemingly more comfortable with her presence.

Another attack began. The creatures appeared again, launching more bullets.

Once Frisk had gotten far enough, the battle ended. Moldbygg let out a roar of contentment and turned back into a pile of jelly resembling a normal Moldsmal.

Frisk turned around and continued on. Well, that was strange.

* * *

The next room that Frisk entered was darkened, bar for the flora that dotted it: a few glowing trees and a couple of mushrooms.

As Frisk approached a mushroom, it began to glow a little brighter. With a nudge from her shoe, it fully brightened, illuminating a path through the room.

Frisk glanced around, noticing that there was something approaching her.

It was a small, fluffy creature. It seemed to be a cat, but that didn't explain the dog ears, or the dark curls of hair on its head. Whatever it was, Frisk waved hello to it.

"hOI!" the monster greeted. "i'm tEMMIE!"

As the monster got close, Frisk's eyes immediately began to water, her nose beginning to stuff up.

One time, some of the other children had hidden a stray cat within the orphanage. Frisk couldn't stop hacking and sneezing for an entire week before the cat was found and thrown back out onto the streets. It was then when she was told that she had an allergy to cats.

So it did not help matters when Temmie tried to glomp her.

"OMG!" it cried. "humans TOO CUTE!"

Frisk ducked out of the way of a flying Temmie. Its face was vibrating intensely, as if it was going to fly off from its head.

"tem… must… pet… hOOman!"

The Temmie excitedly hopped up to the child. It giggled as it began to paw at her leg.

"awwAwa cute!"

Unfortunately for Frisk, the allergies got worse. The child jerked her leg back as she sneezed, nearly falling over due to the shock.

She backed away from the monster. Temmie seemed to be oblivious to the allergic reaction, so it continued on its petting endeavors.

Then, all of a sudden… Aaron floated in.

"Do you know what I think is cute?"

"NO!" Temmie cried. "muscles r… NOT CUTE!"

Aaron edged closer to the other monster, giving it a seductive wink. "Ooh, I have to disagree."

Temmie began to whimper nervously, feeling uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable.

It bolted off into another direction, scrambling away from the muscular monster. "NOOOOOO! tem DO NOT WANT!"

After Temmie left, Aaron grew nervous himself.

"H-hi there," the sea-horse muttered to the child. "G-g-ghosts aren't real, right?"

"They are," Frisk replied, thinking of Napstablook.

Aaron shivered uncontrollably at her response. "What? Oh nooooooo…"

He flexed his muscles. "How about we have a rematch to get my mind off of this?"

The child rolled up her sleeves. "Sure!"

* * *

Frisk stared at the newly created hole in the ceiling.

Again!?

* * *

Frisk nudged the last of the mushrooms, lighting up the paths that ran through the entire room.

But as Frisk was about to leave, she heard a noise coming from a path in another direction. Naturally, being the curious child that she was, she went to investigate. But… what awaited her was a horrifying sight.

Oh god, there was a whole village of them.

"oH!" one of the Temmies cried, noticing Frisk's presence. "Is… a HUMAN!"

"No no no no no—" Frisk began, but it was too late. The Temmies ran up to her with such enthusiasm that they had knocked her over. They began to dogpile onto the child on the floor.

It was like being covered with a fluffy, allergy-triggering blanket. Not as great as it sounds.

"humans… such a… CUTE!"  
"must… pet… human!"  
"awawawah!"  
"Adorable, are they not?"

Frisk tried to get up, but had the wind knocked out of her as another Temmie hopped into the pile.

And then the allergies began to kick in. With a massive sneeze, Temmies flew everywhere.

"aww… hUMAN is allergic TO tem… " one of the Temmies pointed out.

They let out a collected moan of disappointment before they all wandered away. Well, except for one, which stood next to Frisk's head.

"dat OK…" the lone Temmie said. "tem understand…"

"bcause… tem… _also_ allergic to tem!"

The Temmie's face immediately began to swell.

"hOIvs!" it cried, turning around and running away.

The child got back up onto her feet, brushing the Temmie fur from her clothes.

As Frisk observed the comfy and… highly questionable village and its inhabitants, she was filled with… something.

De- _temmie_ -nation.

The child rubbed her eyes and took a second look.

Yes, there was a Temmie stuck in the wall over there.

* * *

The most notable attraction in Temmie Village was located inside an alcove. Although it was probably an awful idea to enter it, Frisk did so anyways.

A Temmie sat behind a cardboard box. On the box, the words "Tem Shop" was painted.

"hOI!" the Temmie greeted. "welcom to… da TEM SHOP! u should puchase… tEM FLAKEs!"

The Temmie set her wares in front of the child.

There were three bags, all filled with colorful pieces of construction paper. One was labelled "food of tem". The second was labelled "DISCOUNT FOOD OF TEM!" The third was labelled "food of tem (expensive)." Frisk couldn't tell the difference between their contents.

Since the child had no use for scraps of paper, she looked for something else she could do.

"Can I… —achoo!— sell things here?" she asked.

"yAHS!" the Temmie cried. "tem shall buys from u!"

There was a box nearby. Frisk dug through it, in search of the thing she was looking for.

She carefully picked up the toy knife and brought to the Temmie. Upon being presented with the object, its eyes widened.

"WOA!" it exclaimed. "u gota... toy knifes!"

The Temmie began to sweat profusely. "hnnn… I gota have dat toy knife… but I gota pay for colleg…

The monster shuddered in indecision. "hnnnn…! tem always wanna toy knifes!"

It continued to internally panic, until Frisk placed a hand on the knife and began to pull it back towards her.

"okay!" Temmie finally exclaimed. "tem buy for 101G!"

The child nodded, since that was a lot of money.

As the Temmie was passed the knife, it pulled out a sack filled with coins and handed it to the child. "thanks for business!"

As Frisk soon left the alcove, Temmie waved goodbye. "bOI!"

* * *

Upon leaving that horrible place behind, Frisk took a deep breath. Already, her sinuses were beginning to clear up.

Frisk went through another exit and ended up in another dimly lit room. There weren't any mushrooms in this one, but path was lit up by lanterns sitting on the floor.

It seemed that their light was quickly waning, shrouding the room in darkness. Which was bad.

Frisk nudged the closest lantern, causing it to turn back on, along with all the other lanterns in the room. She didn't have much time, however, since their light immediately began to wane again.

After some aimless wandering, partly in the dark, she eventually found the exit, continuing on her way.

* * *

Frisk stepped into a unilluminated, narrow hallway. She glanced around, but there was no light source in immediate sight.

The floor was covered by a shallow layer of water. Her ballet shoes were entirely submerged, but Frisk didn't really care. After all, she hadn't found them in the best condition in the first place.

As she continued forward, the room seemed to grow more dim, the child being enveloped by pitch-black darkness like a diver in the ocean. Frisk could barely see anything beyond a few feet from her face.

The room was dead quiet, bar the sloshing of the water as the child made her way through it. At one point, her feet made the transition from wet to dry land, the sound changing to the light steps of soaked feet.

She found that there was a dead end up ahead. As she approached it, she could make out a single object: an echo flower. She propped her ear closer to it, hearing a single voice come from it.

"Behind you."

Immediately, the room illuminated with light. Frisk slowly spun around, a sense of dread in her heart.

There, in front of her… a warrior in shining armor stood.

Frisk yelped in surprise and backed up against the wall behind her. There was nowhere to run this time.

Once again, she had fallen into a trap.

"Seven." came a paced, deliberate voice from the helm. "Seven human souls."

A long pause.

"With the power of seven human souls, our king… King Asgore Dreemurr… will become a god."

King… Asgore… Dreemurr?

* * *

"Asgore… do not let Asgore take your soul. His plan cannot be allowed to succeed. Do you understand?"

* * *

The child was filled with further dread. The king wanted her dead, too…

She had been told that the king was a friendly person… had they been wrong?

"With that power, Asgore can finally shatter the barrier," Undyne continued.

Her hands clenched into fists. "He will finally take the surface back from humanity… and give them back the suffering and pain that we have endured."

Undyne paused, to let that sink in.

"Human. Your soul is the key to our freedom. Do you understand?"

Frisk nodded out of fear. Her knees had crumpled beneath her, leaving her cowering on the ground.

The captain of the royal guard glared directly at the child. "So… this is your only chance at redemption."

A spear materialized in Undyne's hand.

Give up your soul… for the good of monsterkind…"

She pointed the spear directly at the child, wielding it with both hands.

"Or I'll tear it from your body."

The heroine leaned forward, ready to strike.

Frisk shut her eyes and prepared for the worst, her small, frail body trembling furiously.

Seeing as the human would not give up her soul so willingly, Undyne took a step forward.

 _Clank._

Then another.

 _Clank._

The heroine charged straight forward, her spear thrust outward.

 _Clang clang clang clang clang—_

"Undyne! I'll help you fight!"

The monster kid suddenly pounced out of the nearby brush, forcing Undyne to halt right in her tracks.

He turned to Frisk, whose eyes had snapped open at the disturbance. Undyne's spear was mere feet away from her head.

"Yo!" the kid shouted. "You did it! Undyne is _right_ in front of you! You've got front row seats to her fight!"

He glanced around, looking for the bad guy that Undyne was going to beat up. But he didn't find one.

"…wait. Who's she fighting?"

Undyne bitterly cast her spear off to the side. She then promptly snatched the kid by the face and stormed away, taking the young monster with her.

"H-hey!" the kid complained. "You aren't going to tell my parents about this, are you?"

Frisk continued to shudder as the sound of clanging armor grew more distant.

When the room went silent again, the child let out a sigh of relief, allowing her joints to loosen up. But she couldn't relax for long.

Undyne was going to come back… and she wouldn't want to be cornered again.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere else in Waterfall…

Sans was walking around in the garbage dump.

"what's up, wosh?" he greeted. Woshua was a common sight around Waterfall, since he had a lot of self-imposed janitorial duties. Currently, he was arranging the garbage into symmetric piles.

"Just the usual," the janitor replied.

It was then that Sans noticed that there was something floating around in the bathtub on Woshua's back.

"what's that?" the skeleton asked, pointing to the objects.

"They're the human's shoes," Woshua explained. "I found them sitting around here, and the human wasn't nearby… so I'm holding on to them for now."

The monster pondered over it. "I mean, they aren't even in bad condition, so I'd have no idea why the human would have just thrown them away like that."

"what if she didn't?" Sans proposed. "who knows… someone could have taken them from her. after all, the king needs seven human _soles_ to break the barrier."

"Oh, that's a good one!" Woshua remarked with a chuckle. "Mind if I steal it?"

"feel free. i'm not gonna stop ya."

Woshua then had an idea. "Hey, actually… do you want to take them? You might bump into the human later."

Every monster that knew about Sans knew that he had some strange way of getting around. He would always slip away and end up somewhere else. On occasion, people noticed that he straight-up vanished into thin air. He could be in Snowdin for one moment, then in Waterfall the next.

"alright," Sans agreed. "without them, she might be… de- _feet_ -ed."

For all he knew, Frisk could have been walking around barefoot.

Sans picked the shoes up from Woshua's back. They were a bit wet, however…

Oh well, he could dry them in Hotland.

* * *

Frisk entered yet another hallway. Like the last one, the floor partially was flooded with water, so it would require a bit of wading. Echo flowers popped up through the water, repeating the last words spoken into them.

As Frisk walked past one, she heard a familiar voice.

"Where, oh where, could that child be…? I've been looking all over for them…"

The child stopped right in her tracks. She heard it repeat itself, confirming what she thought she had heard.

That voice was Toriel's.

Before she had time to think about it, she heard another voice from right behind her.

"Hee hee hee. _That's_ not true."

She turned around. This voice was familiar too, but it was associated with something less pleasant.

Even in the dim lighting, she could make out the bright yellow petals of the tall flower that stood there.

More notably, the flower was grinning at her.

"How did you…" she began.

"Oh, getting out of the ruins? I can burrow underneath the door, silly!" Flowey said in a mockingly sweet voice.

The child fidgeted, taking a couple of brief steps away from the flower. Maybe selling that knife wasn't such a great idea…

Flowey found her reaction amusing. "Don't worry, I meant what I said back there. I'm not going to try to kill you… for now. Because, it would be completely _pointless._ "

The child's hands curled into fists. "How come?"

"Golly, you _still_ haven't figured it out?" Flowey replied, with mild surprise. "You're so naive…"

He gave the child a wink. "Oh well. Where's the fun in spoiling the surprise?"

He was confident that it was not going to be a matter of _if_ she would find out. It was going to be a matter of _when_.

"Well, back to what I was saying earlier," Flowey continued. "Eventually, Toriel's going to find another kid. Once that happens… she'll instantly forget about you."

Frisk took a moment to think about that. Come to think of it, Toriel rarely mentioned anything about any other humans, but it was fairly obvious that she wasn't the first that Toriel had cared for. Frisk had forgotten to ask about it during her time with her.

"It's happened _over_ and _over_ ," the flower continued with a grin. "In fact, I believe that she's forgotten six, at the very least!"

Frisk recalled what Toriel had said. "They come. They leave. They _die._ "

That meant that there were six humans like her. They had gone through the ruins and met Toriel, just like her. And like her… Toriel had let them all go.

"Hee hee hee… that old hag thinks that she can break the rules of this world," Flowey remarked. "She tries _so_ hard to save you humans from Asgore."

Flowey's voice filled with bitter contempt. "And still, she can't save even one."

"Because she's all too content to shut herself in the ruins and send the humans to their deaths, with the naive hope that one of them will make it past the king."

It was pretty clear that he despised Toriel. But… Frisk could help but wonder why.

"What an _idiot_!" Flowey shouted, his voice filled with scorn. "You'll _never_ see her again!"

Frisk recoiled from the sting of his words. Was Flowey trying to discourage her, by telling her all of this? Or…

Wait a minute.

"If there were six humans… and they had all died, then… that means…" Frisk thought out loud, connecting the dots together.

"Exactly," Flowey said. "If Undyne takes your soul, then you'll be number seven!"

He continued with a grin. "Asgore will finally be able to break the barrier. And then… humanity will be destroyed."

"Best part is? It'll all be _your_ fault!" The statement was accompanied by laughter.

It was really only partially her fault, of course, since Frisk did not ask to be chased down by a monster. It didn't matter, though.

"But here's the thing," Flowey continued. "There's a way to prevent her from bothering you ever again."

"How?" Frisk was well aware that she was not going to like the answer.

Flowey's face contorted into a menacing grin, baring a row of long teeth.

 _ **"Kill her,"**_ he said, with the demonic, lower-pitched voice that he had used during the first encounter. **_"Turn her to dust!"_**

The thought of erasing someone off the face of the earth terrified her.

"With a stick?" the child asked. After all, that was the only thing in her backpack that Frisk considered a "weapon"… nothing comparable to a spear.

Flowey looked down into the water, right at Frisk's shoes."Hmm… what are those on your feet?"

Frisk lifted her foot out the water, looking at the soaked ballet shoe on it.

"Shoes?" she confusedly wondered. "What am I going to do with these?"

"Oh, I'll tell you." Flowey said, wearing a cruel expression. "Long ago, a human came through here wearing those shoes."

The thought of wearing a dead person's stuff wasn't very comforting, to say the least.

"Now, think back to when you found them," Flowey explained. "Why do you think they were so dusty?"

The child shivered. "B-because… the human killed monsters with them?"

It was then when she realized who had stolen her shoes.

Flowey nodded his head.

"Exactly. Whether they did it on accident, or they truly understood this world's purpose… we may never know. But all that matters is that those shoes… they're dangerous. Dangerous enough to defeat Undyne, perhaps."

Flowey thought over something. "Hm… I might as well show you one more thing. Have you ever tried hitting the box?"

Frisk had not.

"That box is a projection of a monster's soul," the flower explained. "If, say… you were to hit it, the monster would be hurt by the attack. Hit it enough… and the monster will crumble beneath you."

Flowey's voice shifted again. **_"Now, you know exactly what to do. Get her out of your way!"_**

A shrill, terrifying laugh burst from his mouth, bouncing off the walls of the narrow hallway. And with that, he retreated into the ground with a splash.

The echo flowers had picked up the noise, and were now repeating it, over and over…

Frisk clamped her hands over her ears and bolted out the room, the sound of constant laughter still ringing in her eardrums.

A single question continued to tumble around in her head.

Was the meaning of the world really kill or be killed?

* * *

 **AN:**

 **This chapter's a bit slow. But soon…**

 **So I found this part in the text dump that I use:**

 **i've almost got a mix cd finished for my scary neighbor...**  
 **it's 74 minutes of people screaming their signature wrestling moves**  
 **but they're all autotuned. i hope she likes it**

 **I'm actually not sure if it's used or not.**

 **Also in the text dump, except definitely unused: Bepis valley Granola Bars, and donkeykongismyfavoritemarvelsuperhero. I am not making this up. What the heck, Toby. These are not things you should be hiding in a game that makes people cry.**

 **A little sequence-breaking with Napstablook's cousin's house. Because why not.**

 **Allergies suck. Zero out of tem.**

 **And of course, Flowey. Good ol' Flowey.**

 **Next time: an encounter with the heroine who _never_ gives up.**


	14. Spear of Justice

**Hi there! Load up "Spear of Justice" from the Undertale OST and hit play at the cue!**

* * *

A monster stood in front of a large monitor, sipping from a cup filled with soda.

Currently, the feed from a hidden surveillance camera showed the human stepping onto a bridge.

The monster pulled out her phone, checking the time.

"Oh no… it's time already?" she thought to herself.

She wanted to continue watching, since Undyne was going to fight the human soon. Undyne was unbeatable, after all, so it would be really cool to watch.

But she knew that _they_ would be really cranky if she wasn't on time.

The monster turned away from the screen with a sigh.

* * *

Frisk cautiously crossed the narrow bridge. It felt very stable, but watching Undyne break the bridge with her spears had shattered her security in them. Plus, the dark abyss below wasn't helping matters.

When she was nearly across, she heard light footsteps from behind her. She spun around, seeing that it was the monster kid.

He was staring at the child with curiosity.

"Yo, I know I'm not supposed to be here, but…" the monster spoke. "I wanna ask you something."

He nervously looked down to his feet. "Man, I've never had to ask anyone this before…"

"Umm… yo… you're human, right?" he asked. "Haha."

Frisk nodded silently.

The monster's face brightened. "Man! I knew it! …Well, I know it now, I mean… Undyne told me, um, 'stay away from that human.'"

"So, like, ummm… I guess that makes us enemies or something," he continued. "But I kinda stink at that, haha."

The kid shuffled in place. "Yo, I have an idea. Say something mean so I can hate you. Please?"

Frisk was completely silent, her thoughts having drifted somewhere else.

"Yo, what? So I have to do it?"

The kid sighed. "Here goes nothing…"

"Yo, I… I hate your guts." The words had dejectedly left his mouth.

He stared awkwardly at the human, but he only felt more miserable.

"Man, I… I'm such a turd. I'm… I'm gonna go home now."

The kid turned around and swiftly scurried away along the side of the bridge, with a deep sadness in his heart.

However, he didn't notice that one of the boards in the bridge was out of place. He tripped over it, sending him plummeting over the edge.

His shirt had snagged on a protrusion in the rock below, leaving him dangling over the abyss.

"Yo, w-w-wait!" he shouted. "Help! I tripped!"

Frisk immediately rushed towards him, but the sound of clanking armor stopped her right in her tracks.

Undyne was standing right on the other side of the bridge.

The child's body shuddered. She began to shrink back from the figure.

"Hey! Wh-what are you standing around for?" the kid called out. "Get over here, dude!"

Frisk realized that despite how she scared she was right now… she couldn't let her friend fall.

With all the courage she could muster, Frisk paced forward, trying to ignore Undyne in front of her. Fortunately, Undyne wasn't attacking right now, since she had noticed that the kid needed help as well.

She knelt down and took ahold of the monster's shirt. Using her legs to anchor her body to keep herself from falling off, she pulled with all of her effort.

She struggled more as her grip began to slip. And it wasn't helping that the kid was heavy. Still, she stayed determined.

Soon enough, the monster's feet were on the bridge again, safe and sound.

Frisk collapsed onto the floor, having exerted all of her strength.

"Th-thanks, man…" the kid stuttered to her.

Their attention was shifted by the sound of Undyne taking a step towards the two of them.

Frisk yelped and drew back, but the monster kid stood in front of her, bravely holding his ground.

"Y… yo… dude…" the kid stated, uncertainty in his voice. "If... If y-you wanna hurt my friend… you're gonna have to get through me, first."

After a few seconds of dead silence… Undyne backed off, thankfully. With a huff of part frustration, part relief, she stomped away.

Once the warrior was out of sight, both of the children began to loosen up.

"She's gone…" the monster stated.

He turned to the human.

"Yo, you really saved my skin," he said with a smile. "Guess being enemies was just a nice thought, haha. We'll just have to be friends instead."

The monster kid stared off into the distance, feeling a little sickened by the events. "Man, I should _really_ go home… I bet my parents are worried sick about me!"

He looked back at Frisk. "Well… later, dude! Good luck, I guess!"

And with that, the kid ran off, a little more careful this time.

Frisk felt a rising sense of dread in her heart. Now that the monster kid was gone… it would be just her and Undyne.

* * *

The child summoned as much resolve as she could and continued on.

She crossed over another bridge over a short gap and looked around, noticing the sheer size of the room she had entered.

The ceiling was far beyond her reach. Long, howling drafts blew through it, sending a chill down her spine. Off in the distance, tall, industrial buildings loomed, surrounded by a warm glow.

Directly in front of the child was a huge formation of tall, jagged rocks. The path ahead went straight through it, making the formation an archway of sorts.

At its very top… a sole figure stood.

Frisk analyzed the situation. Perhaps, if she was quiet enough, she could sneak past—

"Seven."

Frisk heard the voice from the top of the peak.

"Seven human souls, and King Asgore will become a god," Undyne continued.

The heroine was gazing off into the distance.

"Six. That's how many we have collected thus far."

Undyne turned to the child, coldly glaring down at her.

"Understand? Through your seventh and final soul, this world will be transformed."

If what Flowey said was correct… Asgore would destroy humanity. The world would certainly be transformed. It was a scary thought.

The warrior continued on, still facing Frisk. "First, however, as is customary for those who make it this far… I shall tell you the tragic tale of our people."

"It all started, long ago…" she began.

Undyne paused for a moment.

Frisk waited for her to continue, but the warrior remained silent. She had placed her hand on the chin of her helmet, trying to recall the next part of her speech.

Eventually, Undyne dropped her hand, letting it fall back to her side.

Briefly, she shook her head. "No, you know what?"

" _SCREW IT!"_ she roared. " _WHY SHOULD I TELL THAT STORY WHEN YOU'RE ABOUT TO DIE!?"_

" _NGAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"_

Swiftly, the heroine spun around and tore the helmet from her head. It was cast away, tumbling down the rocks below.

For a moment, she faced her back to the human, dramatically staring into the distance. She then glanced over her shoulder, her right eye flashing a vibrant yellow.

When Undyne had fully turned back to her, Frisk studied the warrior's face. Her other eye was covered with an eyepatch, and a pair of fins adorned the sides of her head. In her mouth were a row of sharp, yellow teeth.

" _You!"_ Undyne shouted. "You're standing in the way of everybody's hopes and dreams!"

"Alphys's history books made me think humans were cool… with their giant robots and flowery swordswomen."

Undyne put on a menacing scowl.

" _But you?_ You're just a coward! Hiding behind that kid so you could run away from me again! And let's not forget your wimpy goody-two-shoes-shtick!"

"Oooh! I'm making such a difference by hugging random strangers!" Undyne exclaimed, sarcasm dripping from her voice. "Oh boy—"

Undyne stopped abruptly for a moment.

"Wait. Didn't you punch someone? Oh, whatever!"

She continued on. "You know what would be more valuable to everyone? _If you were dead!"_

Frisk was unable to come up with a retort. Wasn't it true?

The warrior pointed off into the distance, still glaring down at the child. "That's right, human! Your continued existence is a crime! Your life is all that stands between _us_ and _our freedom!_ "

Undyne dramatically clutched at her chestplate.

"Right now, I can feel everyone's hearts pounding together! Everyone's been waiting their whole lives for this moment!"

A grin spread across her face, her eye shimmering like the stars of the night sky.

"But we're not nervous at all," she proclaimed. "When everyone puts their hearts together, they can't lose!"

Undyne pumped her fists at her side. "Enough of this! Now, human! Let's end this, right here, right now!"

She shot out her right hand, a magical spear forming within it. "I'll show you how determined monsters can be!"

The tip of her spear was heroically aimed towards the skies, the world beyond the dark prison of the underground.

"Come on!" cried the captain of the royal guard. "Step forward when you're ready!"

The child took a moment to close her eyes, listening to the sound of the howling wind. She realized that if she backed down now… she would never be able to leave the underground.

Suddenly, she was filled with determination. Her eyes shot wide open.

Frisk found the confidence to stumble forwards, ready to begin.

"That's it, then!" Undyne shouted. "No more running away!"

Undyne sprung into the air from the top of the crag. " _Here I cooooooooome!"_

When gravity pulled her down, her feet struck the floor with an earth-shattering crash. In a swift motion, Undyne lunged towards the child.

As the box containing the child's soul formed, the tip of Undyne's spear glowed a bright green. The heroine swung it, leaving a viridescent trail of energy in its wake.

Within the battle box, the color of the child's soul turned from red to green.

"En guarde!" Undyne cried.

* * *

 _(Hey! What are you waiting for!? Hit it!_ _)_

* * *

Undyne towered threateningly over the child, her ponytail flying about in the unrelenting wind.

Almost immediately, Frisk's confidence dissipated. The sight of Undyne made her want to run away and hide in a corner.

But to her dismay, as the child tried to back away, she found that an unseen force was preventing her from moving past a certain point away from the monster. Since she was unable to bypass this resistance, Frisk unwillingly bounded forwards, back towards Undyne.

That meant she was stuck here, forced into battle. The child began to hyperventilate, the rate of her heartbeat climbing higher and higher.

There really was no other option.

"Ahahaha!" Undyne laughed, watching the expression of horror emerge on Frisk's face. "As long as your soul is green, you _can't escape!"_

She raised her green-tipped spear, ready to strike.

"And unless you learn to face danger head-on... you won't last a _second_ against _me_!"

Undyne began her attack. Arrows appeared from above the box, slowly flying downwards towards Frisk's soul.

Frisk tried to move her soul out of the way… but she couldn't. She watched with fearful curiosity as the arrows were getting closer and closer. But as the arrows touched the blue lines sitting by the top edge of the box, they dissipated with the sound of a ding.

Once all the arrows had disappeared, Frisk placed her focus on the blue lines and found that she could spin them around her soul.

"Not bad!" Undyne exclaimed, flipping her spear impatiently. "Then how about _this!?"_

More arrows began to fly in, coming from other directions. Frisk spun the shield to meet the arrows, preventing them from reaching her soul.

As the attack ended, Undyne waited for the child to act, giving her an opportunity to strike back. The child gathered her determination and took it, stepping forth.

With all of her strength, she raised her foot and kicked the box as hard as she could.

As her foot made contact, the box violently shook. Undyne flinched for a second, but she seemed to be unaffected by the attack.

"C'mon!" Undyne exclaimed. "Is that all you got!?

She put on a menacing smile. "If you want to defeat me, you're going to have to try a lot harder than _that!_ "

Frisk backed away from the box as more arrows appeared, flying in from the left and the right.

During the attack, the heroine held her fist in front of her, shaking her head. "For years, we've all dreamed of a happy ending… and now, sunlight is just within our reach!"

An arrow managed to strike Frisk's soul, sending a jolt of pain through her body. She managed to block the rest, however.

"I'm not going to let you snatch it away from us!" Undyne cried.

With a loud thwack, Frisk struck the box again. It seemed to be more effective than the last, with the warrior wincing this time.

"In the name of everyone's hopes and dreams!" the heroine of the monsters shouted. "I, Undyne, shall defeat you!"

More arrows flew in, the motions required to block them becoming increasingly more complex.

Frisk attacked again, striking the box with more fervor this time.

"Ngahhh! Enough warming up!" Undyne exclaimed, realizing that since the human was stepping up her game… she should, too.

Arrows approached from all sides, all pointed directly at the child's soul. Frisk swung the lines frantically, in order to block them all.

As the attack was about to end, Undyne decided to switch tactics. She swung her spear yet again, the green magic in her spear fizzling out. Immediately, the color of Frisk's soul changed back to red.

A single blue spear flew towards Frisk's soul. The child tried to block it, only to realize that the shield was gone.

She flinched as the spear connected, but it was not going to stop her. She struck the box again.

"Heh! You're tough!" Undyne remarked, recoiling from the blow.

As Frisk backed up, white spears appeared around the box, spinning around as they honed in on her soul. She found that her soul could be moved freely again…

Wait a minute. Her soul was red. She could run away.

"Hey, Undyne!" the child yelled.

This managed to catch Undyne's attention.

"What is it?" she asked.

"There's something cool over there!" Frisk exclaimed, pointing to the side.

It was the oldest trick in the book, but there was a reason why it had become such a classic. For a moment, Undyne looked away, giving Frisk the opportunity to run past her.

Undyne looked behind her, noticing that the human was escaping.

" _Hey!_ _GET BACK HERE!_ "

* * *

Unfortunately, Frisk did not get very far.

Undyne was much faster and stronger than the child, even with all the heavy armor she was wearing.

Soon, Frisk was snatched up into the air by the collar of her shirt. She struggled to escape Undyne's grasp, but her efforts were futile.

As the battle box reappeared, Undyne tossed the child away. Frisk landed on the floor and scrambled to get back up on her feet.

The tip of Undyne's spear glowed with magical energy once again. As she swung it, the color of Frisk's soul was changed back to green.

"You won't get away from me this time!" the warrior declared.

* * *

Frisk lashed out at the box again.

"Ha!" Undyne roared, shrugging off the attack like it was nothing. "Is that _really_ the best you can do!?"

Another wave of arrows flew in on Frisk's soul. This time, she wasn't able to block them all.

She swiftly dug into her bag and pulled out a cinnamon bun. She choked it down, the pain from her soul quickly fading away.

Meanwhile, Undyne glared down at her.

"If you need to heal yourself… that's fine!" the warrior stated. "I won't give up! I'll drag this on as long as I need to!"

A single arrow crept in from the left. As Frisk watched it, she nearly didn't notice the other arrows that were flying in from the other sides.

She yelped as she spun the shield around frantically to block them, although a couple were able to hit their mark.

"Because honestly, I'm doing you a favor!" Undyne declared during her attack. "No human has _ever_ made it past _Asgore!_ "

At last, Frisk turned the shield to the left to block that first arrow.

She grit her teeth and attacked the box once again, with as much strength as she could. For a moment… Undyne stumbled.

The warrior let out a groan, starting her next attack. Arrows shot in at high speeds, but the shield moved quickly to block them all.

"Honestly, killing you now is an act of mercy!" she claimed.

Mercy from what? Frisk wasn't able to understand. All that she knew that the stakes were too high for her to die here.

The child felt that humanity was counting on her to live on… so she continued to fight back, delivering another sharp blow to the box.

Undyne suffered from another burst of pain, yet she still held her ground. Her facial features began to contort into a scowl.

"So stop being so damn resilient!" the warrior exclaimed, irritation present in her voice.

More arrows zipped in, and this time… Frisk had failed to block all of them.

The child crumpled to the ground, but she was still alive. She hurried to grab something from her bag before Undyne's next attack.

"What the hell are humans made out of!?" Undyne cried in shock. "Anyone else would be _dead_ by now!"

The child frantically scarfed down a crab apple. Her hands were trembling, but the pain had quickly dissipated. She soon found that she was able to pick herself up.

She stepped up to the box and took several deep breaths, gathering all of her strength and determination.

And then she delivered the strongest kick that she had ever pulled off in her life.

* * *

THWACK!

Undyne dropped down to one knee. Frisk let out a squeak as the warrior's stance crumpled, her armor rattling from the fall.

The child drew away from the box, shivering in shock.

"A-are you okay?" she asked. It seemed that Undyne was not hurt by her other attacks, so she wasn't expecting this one to be so effective…

For a moment, Undyne was quiet, the only sound from her being her labored breathing.

"Ngahhh… I'm not going to give up!" she cried.

She began to pound against the ground with her fists.

"Alphys…" _CLANG!_ "Asgore…" _CLANG!_ "Papyrus…" _CLANG!_

The floor shuddered as Undyne struck it over and over, blow after blow.

"Everyone is counting on me to protect them!"

Steadily, her resolve grew stronger, urging her to fight on.

She was not going to die here, when freedom was so close! She wouldn't abandon the people who depended on her! She was going to get the human's soul!

Undyne rose again with a glint in her eye, becoming filled with fiery determination. With an grin on her face, she swung the point of her spear to face the child, its tip crackling with green magical energy.

 _"Human!"_ she declared. "No matter what it's going to take… _I WILL DEFEAT YOU!_ "

Undyne shot a fierce, unwavering glare at the child. She was _not_ going to give up.

"I'll show you how strong we monsters are when we believe in ourselves!"

Arrows shot in with increased intensity, almost as if they were filled with Undyne's resolve as well.

At the attack's end, the monster swung her spear, the green magic fizzling out yet again. As her soul became red again, Frisk managed to avoid the blue spear this time, by moving her soul out of the way.

Now that attack had ended, she had another opportunity to—

… No.

Frisk buried her face within her hands.

She had realized that by fighting back… she was hurting someone. Someone who had hopes… ambitions… dreams.

Someone who had obligations to protect the people she cared for.

"I… I don't want to hurt you anymore…" she stated, regret spilling from her mouth.

Killing wasn't the answer to this. There _had_ to be another way, where nobody had to die. She stared into the box looking for a solution, realizing that her soul was red once again.

And then it came to her: she needed to escape.

* * *

Frisk needed a new distraction, since the same trick wouldn't work twice. She laid eyes on a large boulder off to the side.

Yeah, that would do.

The child pointed to the rock. "Hey, Undyne! I bet you can't lift that huge boulder!"

Undyne's eyes quickly darted to it, then back at the child, with a hint of suspicion. "Are you trying to distract me again? So you can run away—"

"What's the matter?" Frisk taunted, trying to sound as obnoxious as possible. "Are you scared?"

" _WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!?"_ Undyne roared. " _Me?_ _Scared?_ "

The warrior stormed over to the boulder. "I'm going to prove you wrong, _human!_ I'll do more than lift it!"

A crazed grin appeared on Undyne's face.

"In fact… I'll suplex it, _just because I can!_ "

As Undyne faced away from the child and placed her arms around the boulder, Frisk's feet kicked into action. She urgently dashed away.

As Frisk ran, she heard a crumbling noise, accompanied by the sound of Undyne's grunting. She realized that Undyne was actually able to lift that boulder.

Oh, dear god.

Frisk continued to scurry away, resisting the temptation to look behind her when she heard the loud slam of the rock being violently suplexed onto the floor.

Soon, Undyne finally noticed that the human was getting away.

"Nghhh… _oh my god!_ _GET BACK HERE!_ "

* * *

Frisk was not used to running in ballet shoes.

As she ran, her foot got caught on a rock, causing her to trip. Her body landed on the cold, hard floor.

She desperately scrambled to get back up. Once she got back on her feet, she glanced backwards for a second. She gasped, seeing how close Undyne was, and sprinted away.

The child was getting exhausted… but between wearing that heavy armor and being injured, Undyne was tiring at a faster rate.

Still, it was not long before Undyne caught up.

Once Frisk was in her grasp, Undyne swung her magically-tipped spear again, changing the color of Frisk's soul to green yet again.

She dropped the child on the floor, who scurried away as far as the magic boundary would allow her.

Undyne let out a frustrated huff. "You've escaped from me for the last time!"

* * *

As before, Undyne gave the child an opportunity to attack. But this time, the child refused to take it.

"I… I don't want to fight you anymore!" Frisk cried out, stumbling away from the box.

As her adrenaline began to dwindle, the child became very afraid. Her entire body ached, sweat ran down her face, she was at the verge of breaking into tears…

But Undyne refused to relent.

"So you don't want to fight…" she stated. "Ha! I can't believe you want to spare me!"

She drew her finger across her neck in a threatening manner.

"And if you think that I'm going to stop fighting when everyone is depending on me… you're _dead_ wrong!"

Undyne immediately realized that she had accidentally made a pun. She shrugged it off and started another attack.

One of the arrows that flew in was yellow. This one flew to the opposite side as it approached Frisk's soul, forcing her to spin the shield around to block it.

"Alphys told me that humans have something called determination!" Undyne exclaimed. "Even in the face of overwhelming odds… they refuse to give up!"

Out of anger, Undyne ruthlessly smashed her spear on the ground, the pieces flying everywhere. Another one formed in her hand to replace it.

"And now, I see what she meant by that!"

She attacked again, giving Frisk little room to act. More arrows shot in, some of them of the yellow variant. Frisk recalled that she needed to defend the opposite way that they had started and was able to stop them.

"But I'm determined, too!" Undyne declared.

Her eye twitched involuntarily.

"Determined to end this right now!"

A wave of yellow arrows flew in. Frisk was disoriented by them and got hit, several times.

 _"RIGHT NOW!"_ Undyne cried.

She furiously initiated another attack. More arrows flew in at high speeds, both regular and yellow. Frisk couldn't block them all… but she refused to give up her life.

"Please stop…" Frisk pleaded. "It doesn't have to be this way…"

For a moment, Undyne remembered someone that she knew… someone that the way Frisk had acted had reminded her of.

 _"… RIGHT… NOW!"_ the monster shouted.

She pulled off another attack, but it was a little less extreme than the one that preceded it.

For a moment, Undyne was silent, ending her barrage of attacks. Frisk took this opportunity to chomp down on another crabapple, restoring the damage to her soul.

Undyne laughed to herself, realizing that despite everything that she had thrown at the human… they were still alive, somehow.

 _"Ngahhh!"_ she cried. _"Die already, YOU LITTLE BRAT!"_

More arrows flew in.

 _"I will never take mercy from the likes of you!"_ Undyne shouted. _"You! Will! Never! Spare! Me!"_

One more time, the green magic on the tip of the monster's spear dissipated, changing the soul's color back to red.

Frisk looked around, trying to find another suitable distraction, but she was interrupted by the ringing of her phone.

It seemed that Undyne was waiting for her to answer it… so she picked up.

* * *

"HEY THERE, FRISK!" a voice greeted.

"Hi, Papyrus," Frisk replied. "I'm kinda in the middle of something, but… what's up?"

Frisk looked back at Undyne, noting that she wasn't attacking right now. Probably because that wouldn't be very fair.

The voice on the other end spoke. "I WAS JUST WONDERING… WHEN WOULD BE A GOOD TIME FOR US TO HANG WITH UNDYNE?

The child frowned. This was an awkward time to ask that.

Papyrus continued, not having realized this. "I WAS THINKING WE COULD DO IT TODAY, BUT… YOU MIGHT BE A LITTLE BUSY."

Understatement of the century.

The child cocked her head. "I'm not sure… I'll tell you later."

It was then when Frisk had a wonderful idea.

"Wait. Are you able to call Undyne?"

"YEAH, I HAVE HER NUMBER. WHY DO YOU ASK?"

"Can you give her a call?"

"SURE! WHAT FOR?"

"I need someone to distract her. Like, right now."

"HMM… THAT URGENT, HUH?"

"Yeah."

"RIGHT, THEN! SINCE I AM YOUR GREAT FRIEND… I'LL HELP YOU OUT! NYEH HEH HEH!"

Papyrus immediately hung up.

* * *

A few seconds later, a ringtone was emitted from Undyne's armor.

While Undyne fumbled around, looking for the place where she kept her phone, Frisk took the opportunity to bolt away.

"HI, UNDYNE!" a voice from the other end greeted.

Undyne watched the human get away, silently grumbling. "Papyrus, I was kinda in the middle of—"

"MAY I ASK YOU A QUESTION?" the skeleton interrupted.

"What is it?"

"BY ANY CHANCE… IS YOUR FRIDGE RUNNING?"

"…What!? Yes!"

"NICE! I'LL BE OVER TO DEPOSIT THE BREWSKIS! _NYEH HEH HEH!_ "

Before Undyne had a chance to reply, Papyrus hung up. It was then when Undyne realized the purpose of the phone call.

 _"OH, GODDAMN IT!"_

* * *

Undyne dashed off after the human.

"Come back here, you little punk!" the warrior shouted. "Where do you think you're going!?"

Once she got close, she snatched up the child and threw her to the ground.

As Frisk achingly rose to her feet, Undyne swung her spear, changing the color of Frisk's soul back to green— well, it would have, if the heroine hadn't run out of the magical reserves to pull it off.

"Uhh… umm…" she stuttered.

Frisk took this opportunity to run away, without a need for another distraction.

 _"HEY! STOP RUNNING AWAY!"_ Undyne roared, immediately giving chase.

* * *

As Frisk ran forward, she was hit with a blast of hot air.

The caverns that she had escaped to were intensely hot. Down below, off the edge of the land that she stood on, was a sea of boiling lava.

Frisk slowed down for a moment and glanced around at her surroundings… until the sound of Undyne's armor jolted her into running further.

A sentry station was located ahead to the side. In it sat a familiar face.

"Hey, Sans!" Frisk called out, before realizing that the skeleton was fast asleep.

She ran right past the station, since Sans looked rather comfy. It would not be very nice to drag him into this.

The child scuttled onto the bridge ahead of her, trying not to lose her balance… lest she fall into the lava below.

* * *

Soon enough, Undyne had reached the station. And boy, was she fuming.

"Sans!" she yelled. "You were supposed to stop the human!"

The skeleton lazily opened an eye-socket.

"can you speak up?" he asked. "i can't hear you."

"Do your job, Sans!" Undyne impatiently shouted.

Sans casually cupped a hand at the side of his head. "can you speak up a little more?"

Undyne slammed down on the counter-top, causing the station to violently shudder. _"Do. Your. Job!"_

"sorry, i still can't hear ya," Sans stated with a wink. "after all, i don't have any ears."

"Nghhh… _OH MY GOD!"_

Undyne struck the skeleton's station with a powerful kick, with just enough force to make it fall backwards.

And with that, Undyne shook her head and immediately rushed off to catch up to the human.

Sans remained under his knocked-over station.

"wow," he commented. "that was rude."

* * *

 _(Um, you can stop now.)_

* * *

Frisk stumbled across the bridge. Once her feet reached stable land, she glanced backwards.

Undyne was making her way across, but her movement had slowed down to a crawl.

"Armor… so hot…" she moaned. "But I can't… give up…"

Undyne reached the end of the bridge… and promptly collapsed onto the ground, down onto her stomach.

Frisk waited for Undyne to get back up… but she didn't.

The child waited a little longer. Undyne still didn't get back up.

It seemed that she was still alive, since she was still breathing. She was just really exhausted.

Now that Frisk wasn't running for her life, she took a proper observation of her surroundings. There happened to be a water cooler nearby, although it seemed so out of place.

She poured herself a cup of water and brought it to her lips. The water was lukewarm and left a bitter aftertaste in her mouth, but the child sipped at it anyways, since the running and fighting had left her dehydrated.

A groan had come from right behind her. Frisk turned around and noticed that Undyne looked rather dry.

As much as the child didn't want to risk having to fight any longer… she couldn't just leave Undyne here in the scorching heat. She gulped down the rest of the water in her cup and filled it up again.

For a moment, she hesitated. What if Undyne attacked once she felt better? If that happened, the child might die, and then Asgore would have her soul.

Wouldn't it be better to abandon Undyne while she could?

But she came to the conclusion that while leaving Undyne out to suffer was the safest thing to do… it wasn't the right thing to do.

Frisk walked up to the heroine and set the cup of water in front of her, but it turned out Undyne was much too exhausted to pick it up. She wasn't even moving…

So Frisk dumped the water on her head instead.

At first, it didn't seem to have an effect, so the child went to the cooler to pour some more. But as she was filling the cup, Undyne slowly began to stir. The warrior let out a grunt, having slightly raised her head.

Frisk had been so distracted by this that the cup had overflown, water spilling over her hands. She hastily shut the water off and took the cup to Undyne.

This time, Undyne was able to pick up the water. She spilled it over her head as Frisk had done before.

Soon, she was able to pick her body off from the ground.

The warrior tried to get herself back up to her feet, but she struggled to do so as pain wracked her body. Her limbs shuddered.

Oh, right… Undyne had been injured. Frisk felt a pang of guilt, since… it was her fault.

The child dug into her bag. She had a crab apple and a two-pronged popsicle left. She broke the popsicle into two and placed one of the halves in Undyne's hand, while she held on to the other.

"H-here…" she mumbled. "Sorry for hurting you…"

Undyne polished it off in a few bites. She usually didn't like cold food, but she didn't care at the moment.

"Umm… have this too," the child said, the crabapple tumbling out of her hand.

As Undyne finished the crabapple off as well, her strength returned, to some extent. Still, she wasn't in a state to fight any longer. She needed some rest.

Undyne rose to her feet and stared into the distance in contemplation. She had heard horrible things about humans… but some of them were okay, it seemed.

The monster raised a hand. Frisk recoiled from it until she realized that the warrior was holding it out to her in a hospitable manner. Frisk tentatively raised her own hand, since it might be some sort of trick… but then took ahold of Undyne's, anyways.

The warrior shook her hand, like if they were just meeting for the first time. It was a rough, unrestrained handshake, but still a genuine one.

And with that Undyne turned around and trudged across the bridge, returning back to Waterfall.

* * *

The child let out a deep breath.

She absentmindedly bit down on the other half of the popsicle, but it wouldn't help much. No amount of monster food would immediately relieve her of the cuts, scrapes, and bruises that covered her body.

Frisk took a seat on the floor, being completely exhausted from the encounter. The energy-sapping heat wasn't helping, either.

Once she had finished the popsicle, she took the empty stick in her hand and flung it as far as she could, sending it over the edge into the sea of lava.

Frisk then leaned backwards, spreading out across the floor. As she lay there, she felt very comfortable, like she was covered in a warm blanket of heat.

Slowly, her eyes began to close.

* * *

Sans had managed to get out from underneath his station.

He crossed the bridge, approaching the child lying down on the floor. Fortunately, it seemed that she was just really tired. Heat exhaustion had not settled in yet.

The skeleton used the tip of his slipper to nudge her. He didn't get a response.

She was out cold… or was it out _hot_?

Sans knew that he had a promise to keep to that woman beyond the door, so he picked up the child to the best of his ability.

He had short arms, and picking up someone was a delicate process, so it was harder than expected.

And with Frisk in his arms, the skeleton took a shortcut back to Snowdin.

Papyrus would be glad to see her.

* * *

For a flower whose main mode of transportation was burrowing, Hotland was an absolute pain. One wrong path, or one wrong turn… and one could be in a very precarious spot.

Fortunately, Flowey had plenty of experience. He had gone through this place thousands of times before.

His head poked out of the rock. He watched from a distance as Undyne plodded away from the child.

The flower sneered. Even after all the times Undyne had tried to kill her… and the child still refused to finish the job?

Oh well. She would learn soon enough. No… _everyone_ was going to learn, soon enough.

In the large scale of things, it really didn't matter if Frisk had actually killed Undyne or not. If the child had not learned how to fight… she might have never been able to get past Undyne… and that would have been really unfortunate.

That was why Flowey had taught the child the most straight-forward way to get rid of her.

But she found another way… and it seemed to have worked. Because of that, Frisk would continue on her way to the king's castle.

And then…with her intervention… Flowey would become _God_.

Flowey grinned to himself.

Golly, he was _definitely_ looking forward to that.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Boy, do I have a lot to say.**

 **Uhhh… anime is real? Yeah, let's start with that.**

 **For research purposes, I used Flowey's Time Machine to try to recreate some of the conditions for this fight, just to see how much damage Frisk would have done. Turns out that with the Ballet Shoes at level 1, a well-timed attack only does 30-45 damage on average. Undyne has 1500 HP, so there really wasn't too much to fear. And then I tried the stick for funsies. It only did around 20-25 HP per hit.**

 **Although damage output does increase drastically after Undyne's three green mode segments. So Flowey _was_ heading somewhere with that.**

 **Also, I found out that if you don't have a weapon somehow and hit fight, the game gets confused and gets stuck. Weird, huh?**

 **Yes, Papyrus steals one of Sans's jokes. I got that call from Sans once… during a Genocide run. Awkward…**

 **I don't even think Papyrus knows what a brewski is. I mean, I hope not.**

 **I really hope you enjoyed reading this chapter, because I had a fun time writing it!**

 **Next time: fish hangout.**


	15. NGAHHH!

"Where am I…?"

"It's so cold here… and so dark…"

"Someone help me… anyone… please… help me…"

"… _ **But nobody came.**_ **"**

* * *

Frisk woke up… on a green couch?

She examined her surroundings and concluded that she had ended up in Sans and Papyrus's house. A thick blanket was strewn over her body.

The child shivered and took a deep breath, exhaling a white mist. She took a glance under the blanket and confirmed that she was still wearing the clothes she had worn in Waterfall: striped shirt, tutu, and shorts. Since she wasn't wearing the clothes that Toriel had provided, Snowdin was colder than she remembered.

A second later, the child took a second glance underneath the blanket.

"How did those blood stains get there?" she thought out loud to herself.

Frisk went through her head, trying to remember how she had gotten there. The last thing she recalled was saving the monster kid from falling, then helping out Undyne by pouring water on her and giving her some food.

Wait… that wasn't entirely right. Wasn't there supposed to be something in between? Frisk tried to remember… but anything between those two events came up as a blank.

She looked down at her sleeve. There were a few blood stains on it, notably around her elbows, but Frisk couldn't remember how exactly she had got them.

How troubling.

Before her train of thought could continue, it was disrupted by a loud voice.

"FRISK! YOU'RE AWAKE!"

The child turned to the voice, seeing that Papyrus was standing on the upper level.

"Hi, Papyrus," she greeted with a small smile on her face. "H-how did I get here?"

"SANS CAME BACK HERE WITH YOU IN HIS ARMS," the skeleton explained, climbing down the stairs. "HE SAID SOMETHING ABOUT TAKING A NAP IN THE WRONG PLACE."

Yeah, maybe falling asleep in such a hot place wasn't such a great idea.

"What was I doing beforehand?" the child asked, rubbing her forehead. "I can't seem to remember."

"I THINK MY BROTHER MENTIONED SOMETHING ABOUT YOU GETTING INVOLVED WITH UNDYNE, NOW THAT I THINK OF IT."

Right, that's what happened. The child had fought Undyne. And if Frisk remembered correctly, she didn't kill Undyne… although she had managed to injure her.

Still, she was unable to remember any specific details. It was like observing something through a thick mist: it was possible to make out the outlines, but incredibly difficult to take note of anything else.

"SO, HOW WAS IT?" the skeleton asked. "DID YOU TWO HAVE ANY FUN?"

The child tapped at her chin. "I don't remember much, actually. Did you hear anything else?"

"HMM… I DON'T THINK SO," the skeleton replied. "I'M SORRY I COULDN'T BE OF MORE HELP."

"It's fine." Frisk closed her eyes and lay her head to rest again.

After a few minutes, she picked herself up, sliding the blanket off and taking a seat on the couch. She looked down at her knees and noticed that they had been wrapped in cloth, presumably so she wouldn't bleed all over the couch. She decided to leave them that way.

The child's joints ached. Everything felt really sore. She stretched her arms and legs outward, but was forced to bring them closer to herself when a shudder ran down her body.

She continued to shiver uncontrollably. The spring weather had been unusually warm this year, which was why Frisk had chosen to wear a light outfit when she had embarked for Mt. Ebott. Not that she had much of a wardrobe to choose from, anyways.

She probably would have worn something a little heavier if she knew that she was going to end up somewhere really cold.

Of course, if Frisk knew beforehand that she was going to get stuck in a cave, she probably wouldn't have climbed Mt. Ebott in the first place. That was fairly obvious.

"I WOULDN'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT BEING COLD, SINCE I HAVE NO SKIN," Papyrus remarked, noticing the child's condition. "BUT…"

He immediately rushed up to his room. When he emerged, he carried a thick, oversized coat in his arms.

"HERE, THIS MIGHT HELP!" Papyrus exclaimed, handing it to the child.

Frisk put it on to the best of her ability. The coat was heavy, and she had to roll up the sleeves to expose her hands… but it was really warm and comfortable.

The child was able to find the energy to stand up. She tried to walk, but after a few steps, her knees buckled from under her.

"ARE YOU OKAY?" the skeleton asked, helping Frisk back up to her feet.

"Yeah, I — _nghh_ — should be fine."

She had noticed that her bag wasn't on her back. She glanced around, eventually finding it on the table nearby. And next to it…

"Hey, my shoes!" she exclaimed, rushing over to grab them. "Where'd you find them?"

"SANS LEFT THEM THERE WHEN HE BROUGHT YOU BACK HERE," Papyrus remarked.

She eagerly kicked off the ballet shoes —good riddance— and replaced them with her own.

"I'm going to go outside for a walk," Frisk stated, slinging the bag onto her back. She needed to get her blood flowing before she could decide what to do next.

"ONE MORE THING!" the skeleton said, walking up to her.

She turned back. "What is it?"

"NOW THAT WE'RE MEETING IN PERSON, WE DON'T HAVE TO USE SPIRIT HUGS ANYMORE!"

And then Papyrus knelt down and gave her a real hug.

A blush rose to the child's face. Until then, she had completely forgotten about that.

"Thanks, Papyrus."

"DON'T MENTION IT!" the skeleton said, as he let go of her. "HAVE FUN!"

Frisk stepped outside, walking into the snow. She took a deep breath, feeling the cold nip at her exposed shins.

* * *

The first thing that Frisk did was walk to the other end of Snowdin to stock up on food again.

The popsicles had gotten much more expensive since earlier for some reason, so she bought a bunch of cinnamon buns.

From there, she wandered aimlessly. She wanted to check up on the dogs again, but apparently they were all back in the forest where she had first met them, since their break had ended a while ago.

As she went past the Christmas tree, she noticed that the monster kid was observing the presents, quickly checking if any of them belonged to him.

When he looked back up, he noticed Frisk's presence. He excitedly ran straight up to her.

"Yo! What's up!?" he greeted. "Decided to come back here, huh?"

The girl nodded, although she didn't really have much of a choice.

"Since I went back home…" the kid continued, "I've been kinda, doing some thinking…"

A frown appeared on his face.

"Maybe Undyne… isn't actually as cool as we thought," the kid admitted. "She's just kinda…y'know… mean."

"But _yo!_ " he exclaimed, beaming a huge grin. "I just found out about someone _wayyyy_ cooler!"

"Really?" Frisk said, with the semi-incredulous tone that a mother would use in a similar situation. "Who are they?"

"The _Great Papyrus!_ " the kid shouted. "Nyeh heh heh!"

Frisk brought herself to chuckle at the kid's imitation. Not too much though, since that would be mean.

"Hey, are you headed towards his house?" he exclaimed, noticing the way that Frisk had been heading.

"Yeah." She reckoned that there wasn't much else to see in Snowdin, so she might as well go back now.

"Can I come with you?" the kid begged, a glimmer shining in his eyes. "Pretty please!?"

As she nodded again, the kid let out a whoop of excitement.

"C'mon, let's get going!" he cried, running off towards the edge of town.

Frisk slowly followed, a smile creeping up her face.

* * *

Papyrus's house came soon into sight, with the skeleton standing nearby.

"HEY! YOU'RE BACK!" Papyrus exclaimed to the human. "AND YOU BROUGHT A FRIEND, TOO!"

The monster kid eagerly ran up to the skeleton.

"Yo! Papyrus!" he shouted. "You should autograph my face or something!"

"YOU WANT AN AUTOGRAPH? FROM ME?" Papyrus excitedly said, pulling out a marker from a spot in his battle body. "HERE YOU GO!"

He wrote his name in scratchy writing on the kid's sweater. Not on his face, though, since the kid would probably have to wash his face eventually.

"Thanks, man!" the kid exclaimed. "You're the best!"

As Frisk watched him dash away, something had occurred to her.

" _I don't even know his name."_

* * *

Papyrus turned to the child.

"SO, FRISK… ARE YOU READY TO GO HANG OUT WITH UNDYNE NOW?" he asked. "I HAVE A PLAN TO MAKE YOU TWO GREAT FRIENDS!"

Frisk thought it over. She still felt really guilty for hurting someone, and this seemed to be the best way to make up for it.

"Okay!" she said.

"THEN WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?"

Papyrus rushed off into another direction, heading towards the center of town.

"THIS WAY!" he yelled. "I KNOW A WAY TO GET TO UNDYNE'S HOUSE!"

As Frisk ran to catch up, a thought burst forth in her head.

" _Run! Don't let her catch up to you!"_

She glanced over her shoulder. There was nobody chasing her, but… she got the feeling that someone was.

The child continued to chase after Papyrus, but her heart began to race at the sound of loudly clanging armor.

She stopped in her tracks and turned around, but there was nobody there. Nobody in armor, especially.

The child noticed the stance she had automatically taken, and was frightened by it. Her knees were bent at an angle, her arms were raised up in front of her, and her hands were clenched tightly into fists.

In fact, it strongly resembled a battle stance.

"Wh-what the…?" Frisk muttered to herself, taking control over her body to lower her guard.

She turned around, her feet kicking back into action. But she ran on, a wild flood of emotions filled her head. Ones of panic, fear, and desperation… in a place where she should have felt totally safe.

As the child came to an halt, she clutched at her head, nausea washing over her. A bead of sweat ran down her face.

She figured out what was happening. She couldn't recall the events that happened during her fight with Undyne, but it didn't really mean that she had completely forgotten them.

The child took deep breaths, desperately sucking in the cold air. She focused on the snow in front of her, convincing herself that she was currently in no real danger.

Soon, she was able to calm herself down. She came to a conclusion: to prevent that from happening again, running should be done only when necessary.

So she forced herself to move slowly, one step at a time.

* * *

Papyrus was standing besides a river, patiently waiting for Frisk to arrive.

A plain wooden boat floated within the river. In it, a solitary figure stood. A long, shadowy cloak covered its body, and the hood on its head obscured any facial features that it might have.

"HERE'S THE RIVER PERSON!" Papyrus explained. "THEY CAN TAKE US TO WATERFALL!"

The hooded figure turned its head, looking down at the child.

"Tra la la. I am the riverman," it introduced in a mysterious voice. "Or am I the riverwoman…? It doesn't really matter."

Normally, Frisk wouldn't accept anything from strange, hooded figures, but the alternative was a lot of walking. She had done enough walking during her lifetime to grow tired of it.

"I love to ride in my boat," it continued. "Would you care to join me?"

Frisk nodded eagerly, despite the riverperson's odd appearance.

The figure turned to Papyrus. "Where will we go today? The usual, perhaps?"

"YEAH. TO WATERFALL!"

The riverperson nodded. "Then we're off. Climb aboard…"

Papyrus hopped onto the boat, with Frisk immediately following suit.

Without any force acting on it, the boat began to float along the river. Aside from slowly bobbing up and down, the boat passed smoothly, cutting like a knife through the water.

Frisk looked back at the snow-covered floors of Snowdin as the boat floated away from it.

The river ran down a plain, dark corridor.

Frisk took a moment to observe her reflection in the river. She ran her fingers through her hair in an attempt to groom herself, since her hair was rather messy.

She noticed that she had a cloudy look in her eyes: one that spoke of seeing many things, meeting many people, surviving through many trials.

Yet behind that was still a layer of warmth. One that the underground wasn't able to snuff out… although it had come close, recently.

It was still hard to imagine that she had actually hurt someone…

Was she really the same person that fell down that hole on Mt. Ebott? Honestly, Frisk was unable to answer that at the moment.

Her musings were interrupted by the voice of the riverperson.

"Tra la la," the riverperson sung to itself. "Humans, monsters… flowers."

A new thought came up in the child's head.

Was Flowey really a monster? The way he had acted seemed so different to how the other monsters had acted. Even when Undyne was trying to kill her, she hadn't done it out of hatred or spite…

But Flowey… there was something unsettling about him, something that no other monster possessed.

Oh well. There was bound to be a bad one out of the bunch, right?

The boat soon slowed to a stop, floating up to a stretch of land nearby.

As soon as Frisk noticed the glowing rocks in the walls, she knew that they had arrived at Waterfall.

* * *

A short walk later, the two of them had reached Undyne's house, which happened to be very close to Napstablook's.

The house appeared to look like the head of a fish, with the door looking like a toothy fish mouth. Scales were painted on the exterior, adding to the theme.

Inside, someone was playing the piano. Well, playing wasn't the most accurate of words. It sounded like someone was smashing down on the piano. But at least it sounded somewhat coherent?

The child slid Papyrus's coat from her back. She handed it back to Papyrus with a thank-you, as he took it from her.

He hung it over the head of a training dummy sitting nearby. A voice came from it, muttering something about not being a coat rack.

Frisk walked up to it and gave it a simple greeting of a hello.

"What. What! _WHAT!_ " the dummy squawked, its voice muffled by the coat over it.

It let out a dejected sigh. "It's a living."

The child turned away from it and went towards Papyrus, who was standing in front of Undyne's door.

"SO!" the skeleton began. "ARE WE READY TO HANG OUT?"

The child responded with a cheery nod.

"OKAY! STAND BEHIND ME!" he stated.

Soon after Frisk had taken her spot, the skeleton looked over his shoulder.

"PSST," he whispered, "MAKE SURE TO GIVE HER THIS!"

Papyrus held out a gift-wrapped bone behind him.

"SHE LOVES THESE!"

The child took ahold of the bone with a loose grip.

The skeleton raised his arm and politely knocked at the door. Soon, the piano-playing came to a stop.

After what seemed like eternity, the teeth retracted into the walls, and Undyne came out to greet them. Since she had removed her armor, she was wearing more comfortable clothing: a black sleeveless shirt, jeans, and a pair of bright red boots.

"Hi, Papyrus!" she greeted. "Ready for your extra-private, one-on-one training?"

"YOU BET I AM!" the skeleton replied, despite the privacy of the training being… compromised. "AND I BROUGHT A FRIEND!"

Papyrus walked to the side, getting out the way between the child and Undyne.

Undyne started with a greeting. "Hi, I don't think we've…"

She took a closer look, realizing exactly who was standing in front of her.

Her expression tensed up. For a moment, she stared intently at the child, her eye twitching on occasion. Her teeth were clenched tightly against each other.

If looks could kill… well, to put it bluntly, Frisk would have been totally screwed.

"Hi," the child said, attempting to break up the silence. Somehow, she was finding the courage to hold her ground.

Undyne glanced to Papyrus, who was also completely silent, nervously wearing a grin on his face.

"Why don't. You two. Come in?" the captain of the royal guard suggested, with little emotion in her voice.

Papyrus rushed on in, taking a moment beforehand to wipe his boots on the mat at the feet of the door.

The child turned away from the open door in front of her for a moment, taking a deep breath and steadily rebuilding her composure.

"COME ON!" a loud whisper came from inside. "FRIENDSHIP IS WAITING FOR US!"

The child walked on in, anxiously wiping her shoes on the mat as Papyrus had done.

* * *

Once they were all inside, Papyrus snatched the bone from Frisk's hands and presented to the fish monster.

"HERE, UNDYNE," he said. "MY FRIEND BROUGHT A GIFT FOR YOU, ON THEIR OWN!"

"Uhhh… thanks," Undyne replied, accepting the bone with uncertain gratitude. "I'll, uh, put it with the others."

She walked to the back of the house and casually dropped the bone in a drawer filled to the brim with identically gift-wrapped bones.

Undyne turned back to her guests. "So, are we ready to start?"

"WHOOPSY DOOPSY!" Papyrus exclaimed. "I JUST REMEMBERED! I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM!"

Frisk turned to him in surprise. Toriel had taught her that monster food didn't pass through the bodies of those who ate it, so monsters didn't need to go to the bathroom.

"YOU TWO HAVE FUN!" he shouted.

And with that, Papyrus performed the act of self-defenestration.

Yes, that's a thing. No, it doesn't mean anything… obscene. In simpler terms, he dashed over to the window and flung himself straight through it.

Frisk stared at the broken window in silence for a few seconds. Slowly, her gaze turned back to Undyne, who was… kinda expecting that, yet bewildered all the same.

It was then when the child realized that she had been left all alone with Undyne.

With _Undyne…_ y'know, the person that was trying to kill her earlier.

Simply put, this wasn't going very well.

"Huh. Normally he nails the landing…" Undyne muttered.

She turned back to the human in her house.

"So why are you here?" she asked.

The monster put on a scowl. "To rub your victory in my face? To humiliate me even further? Is that it?"

"Uhh… no?" the child peeped, her voice having become more restrained.

A quizzical look appeared on Undyne's face. "Then why are you here?"

"It was Papyrus's idea," the child squeaked.

Usually, her voice didn't help to identify what gender Frisk was, because it didn't sound particularly feminine. This, along with the short length of her hair, had led some to believe that she was male. She had been occasionally been teased about that.

But at the moment, her voice unmistakably resembled a girl's, perhaps even one of someone a few years younger than she was. She wasn't even aware until then that she was capable of making such sounds.

"Wait, I get it," Undyne said, coming to a realization. "You think that I'm gonna be friends with you, huh?"

The child lowered her head, her gaze turning to the floor. "I mean, that was the idea…"

"Really? How delightful! I accept!" the monster exclaimed in a mocking manner. "Let's all frolick in the fields of friendship!"

She crossed her arms, putting a sneer on her face. "… _NOT!_ "

A quiet whimper spilled from the child's mouth.

"Why would I _ever_ be friends with you!?" Undyne scoffed. "If you weren't my houseguest, I'd beat you up right now! You're the enemy of everyone's hopes and dreams!"

Undyne swung her arms outward in exasperation. "I mean, what even compelled you to come here anyways? You just got out of a fight with me, and then you just expect us to get along?"

Now that she had worded it like that, it sounded like a ridiculous notion.

"I will never be your friend!" Undyne shouted, pointing towards the door. "Now get out of my house!"

"Okay," was all that Frisk was able to get out.

She began to turn around, eager to get out of there as soon as possible. Welp, that was a bust.

Suddenly, Papyrus's head poked in from the broken window.

"DANG! WHAT A SHAME…" the skeleton remarked.

He let out a sigh. "I THOUGHT UNDYNE COULD BE FRIENDS WITH YOU… SINCE FRIENDS OF FRIENDS ARE FRIENDS, RIGHT?"

"Papyrus, that logic doesn't even make any—" Undyne said, but Papyrus kept on going.

"BUT I GUESS… I OVERESTIMATED HER. CLEARLY, SHE'S JUST NOT UP TO THE CHALLENGE!"

And with that, he pulled himself away from the window and ran off.

"Challenge!?" Undyne shouted. "What!?"

She ran up to the window. "Papyrus! Wait a second…!"

But by then, the skeleton was long gone.

Undyne stomped on the ground. "Darnit!"

She turned back to the child, with a bright glint in her eye.

"Ha!" she exclaimed. "He thinks I can't be friends with _you!?"_

Undyne let out a roaring laugh, arms pumped by her sides."What a joke! I could make friends with a wimpy loser like you any day!

She swung her arm, wearing a determined grin on her face. "I'll show him!"

Frisk began to fully understand Papyrus's plan. Actually, it was pretty clever of him. Well, it would be, assuming things went… non-murdery.

"First of all!" Undyne shouted, pointing directly at the child. "What's your name!?"

"F-Frisk…" the child sputtered.

Undyne crossed her arms. "Listen up, Frisk! We're not just going to be friends!"

"We.. we're not?" The child wasn't liking the way that this was headed.

The monster put her hands up to her face. "No… we're going to be… _besties!_ I'll make you like me so much… you won't be able to think of anyone else!"

She pumped her fists into the air. "Fuhuhuhu! It's the _perfect revenge_!"

Frisk glanced behind her at the exit.

"I, uh… have to go to the bathroom too," she nervously lied.

"Oh, leaving so soon?" Undyne said, in a cheery manner.

She shot a piercing glare at the child.

"No. No you're not."

* * *

Since she would be stuck here for the time being, Frisk took a glance around Undyne's house.

Near the center of the room was a large table, with a few stools sitting around it. A piano sat off in the side.

Near the back of the house was an array of cabinets and drawers, along with a large, shiny stove.

"I'm so glad to have you here!" Undyne said, with forced enthusiasm.

She went to grab something from the floor beside the table.

"Y'know, humans suck, but their history... kinda rules, to be honest," Undyne claimed. "Case in point: this giant sword!"

Undyne picked up the giant sword and triumphantly raised it in the air, shuddering under its weight.

Frisk's eyes widened at the sight of the blade. It looked like it could easily slice her in half, and the fact that Undyne was carrying it wasn't helping matters.

"Historically, humans wielded swords up to ten times their size," Undyne stated. "Right!?"

The child shook her head in utter disbelief. "I don't think so…"

"Pfft! You liar!" Undyne shouted. "I've _read_ Alphys's human history book collection!"

A confident smirk crept up her face. "I know all about your giant swords… your colossal, alien-fighting robots… your supernatural princesses…"

"Heh!" she snapped. "There's no way you're gonna fool me!"

Frisk had learned some history on the surface, both from school and her own readings… but she had never heard about anything that Undyne had mentioned. Still, she thought it was best to stay quiet.

"When I first heard about the giant swords, I immediately wanted one!" Undyne continued. "So me and Alphys built one together. She figured out all the specs herself… she's smart, huh!?"

Frisk nodded. Mostly because she had no idea how to respond otherwise.

"And believe me, if you weren't my beloved houseguest… I would _gladly_ give you your fill of swords, too!"

Undyne carelessly let the weapon drop to the floor, cleaving the tile beneath it in two.

"I'll… get that fixed later," she said, looking down at the damage. "For now, why don't you have a seat?"

Frisk cautiously approached the table, taking a seat on the stool.

"Comfortable?" the monster asked, still under the continued guise of hospitality. "I'll get you something to drink."

She reached into her fridge and took out a few things. She set them out on display on the countertop at the back of the room: a small jar of sugar, a bottle containing some sickly yellow liquid, a green canister, and a couple of square boxes.

"All set!" she stated. "What would you like?"

Frisk rose up from her seat to get a closer look—

A spear flew through the air, striking the table in front of her. With a loud crack, the table split into two, collapsing onto the floor.

" _HEY! DON'T GET UP!"_ Undyne yelled. _"YOU'RE THE GUEST! SIT DOWN AND ENJOY YOURSELF!"_

She wandered over to the child, who had tripped over the stool behind her and landed on her back.

"Need a hand?" she offered.

The child was silent, so Undyne just picked her up by the shoulders and placed her back down on the stool.

"Why don't you just point to what you want?" she offered, removing the spear from the middle of the table and holding out the end to the child. "You can use the spear!"

The child took hold of it, feeling the magical energy pulse through her hands.

She squinted, but she was unable to tell what those were. She was unable to recognize the bottle's label, the canister was unmarked, and she was unable to read the writing on the boxes from her viewpoint.

"Umm… Undyne?" she carefully asked.

"What is it, my wonderful houseguest?" Undyne said, with a hint of sarcasm.

"I can't tell what those are," Frisk admitted.

"Oh, no problem!" Undyne cheerily exclaimed. "Let me tell you!"

She walked over to the container at the far left.

"That's sugar," she described, "but that's for the tea. I'm not gonna give you a cup of sugar."

Next, she picked up the bottle of yellow liquid. "This is soda!"

Almost immediately, Frisk's face instinctively scrunched up. She had tried soda once… and it was nasty. It was sticky, it left a gross feeling in her mouth, and it was unbearably sweet.

"Ah, you don't look too happy," Undyne noticed. "Heh, that's fine! I think it's gross, too!"

She put on an expression of disgust as well. "It rots your teeth… It rots your mind… _it rots your fighting spirit!"_

"Then… why do you have it?" the child asked out of curiosity.

For a moment, Undyne affixed her sight somewhere else. The child might have been imagining it… but… she noticed a rosy tint on Undyne's face.

"Uhh… moving on!" the monster said.

Undyne picked up the green canister and shook it, but it didn't make a sound.

"Oh. This is supposed to be hot chocolate, but I just remembered… this container's empty."

That was a shame, since Frisk was rather fond of chocolate. It was something that she rarely had on the surface, so it was always a joy when she did.

And Toriel had some chocolate around her house… which was odd, now that she thought about it. Toriel didn't strike her as a person who enjoyed candy.

"I stopped getting it because it was always a hassle…" Undyne explained. "Asgore kept getting marshmallows stuck in his beard."

"You know Asgore?" the child asked. She wanted to know a little more about him, since she had received conflicting accounts.

"Yeah, it comes with the position," the monster replied. "They don't call it the _royal_ guard for nothing!"

The child supposed that it made sense. Before she could ask anything else, however, Undyne went over to grab the boxes at the far right.

"Well, you're getting tea, then!" she exclaimed, since it was the only thing left.

Frisk had never had tea before, so she didn't know if it was any good.

"Which one do you want?" Undyne asked, holding the boxes up for Frisk to see.

The child pointed to a random one with her finger. "That one, I suppose."

"Coming right up!"

As Undyne prepared the tea, the child let the spear fall from her hands. It fell on the floor and dissipated.

"It'll take a moment for the water to boil," Undyne stated, placing a kettle on the stove.

* * *

A few minutes later, the kettle began to whistle.

"Okay, it's all done!" the monster stated.

Undyne fetched a fish-shaped teacup from the sink and filled it with tea, along with a generous spoonful of sugar.

She walked over the the child and held the teacup out to her. "Here we are."

Frisk took ahold of it and cupped her hands around it, feeling the warmth seep into her fingers and her palms.

"Careful, it's hot," the monster said, taking a seat on a stool at the other side of the broken table.

"Just… like you?" came Frisk's feeble attempt at a joke to lighten the mood.

It was only after it had escaped her mouth that she realized that it wasn't something to say to someone that she was just being acquainted with.

"Are you… hitting on me?" Undyne asked, being rather confused.

"No," the child interjected, her cheeks flaring up.

"That's what I thought."

Silence filled the room. Frisk gently blew on the tea to cool it down, watching the steam rise up from it.

"It's not that hot!" Undyne complained. "Just drink it already!"

Frisk took a sip of the tea. It scalded her tongue, but otherwise… it tasted pretty good. It was a little on the sweet side, yet it had a subtle bitterness to it. It was very refreshing.

"It's pretty good, right?" the monster stated, noticing Frisk's expression. "Nothing but the best for my _absolutely precious friend!"_

Undyne went silent for a moment, her thoughts having drifted somewhere else.

"Hey, you know…" she began. "It's kind of strange you chose that tea. Golden flower tea… That's Asgore's favorite kind."

Undyne placed a hand on the bottom of her chin. "Actually, now that I think about it… you kind of remind me of him. And by that, I mean you're both _total weenies!"_

Her amused expression lessened. "…sort of."

She began to mull over something.

"Y'know, I was a pretty hotheaded kid," Undyne explained. "Once, to prove I was the strongest, I tried to fight Asgore. Emphasis on _tried_."

"What happened?" the child asked, out of curiosity.

"I wasn't even able to land a single blow on him! And worse, the whole time, he refused to fight back!"

Undyne let out a sigh of frustration. "I was so humiliated…"

Her anger quickly faded, as a small grin appeared on her face.

"Afterwards," she continued, "he apologized and said something goofy…"

Her voice grew deeper, at a silly attempt at imitation. "Excuse me, do you want to know how to beat me?"

"I said yes," she went on normally, "and from then on, he trained me. Almost everything that I know about combat, I learned from him."

The child's expression darkened for a moment. If Asgore was really trying to take her soul, what chance did she have? Undyne was difficult enough.

Undyne continued. "One day, during practice, I finally knocked him down. To be honest, I felt… really bad about it."

Frisk could understand the feeling.

"But he was beaming…" the monster said with a grin. "I had never seen someone more proud to get their butt kicked."

The child decided that things shouldn't be so black and white. Asgore might have been a wonderful person to be around… but she still needed to be wary of him.

"Anyway, long story short, he kept training me… and now, thanks to him, I'm the head of the Royal Guard!" Undyne boasted. "So I'm the one who gets to train dorks to fight! Y'know… like, uh, Papyrus."

Undyne's expression grew downcast.

"But, um, to be honest… I don't know if… I can ever let Papyrus into the Royal Guard."

Frisk grew confused. Papyrus was working really hard at joining the Royal Guard… so why?

"Don't tell him I said that!" Undyne quickly added.

She glanced away, placing her hands in her lap. "He's just… well…"

"I mean, it's not that he's weak," she continued, her head shaking slightly. "He's actually pretty freaking tough! I mean, you've fought with him, so you know what I mean, right?"

Frisk nodded, since she had struggled trying to dodge all of Papyrus's attacks. If her soul was less sturdy, things might have gone a bit differently.

"It's just that… he's… he's too innocent and nice!" the monster continued.

Undyne looked directly at the child. "I mean, look, he was _supposed_ to capture you... and he ended up being _friends_ with you instead!"

It made a little more sense to Frisk now. If she hadn't been so eager to befriend Papyrus back there… there might have not been a Papyrus anymore.

"I could _never_ send him into battle!" Undyne exclaimed. "He'd get ripped into little smiling shreds! And if that happened, I would be so ashamed of myself…"

She let out a sigh.

"That's part of why… instead of training him in the usual warrior stuff… I started teaching him how to cook, you know?"

Undyne glanced off at the broken window. "So, um, maybe he can do something else with his life. Something that won't place his life in danger."

She turned back to her guest, noticing that the teacup in her hands was empty.

"Oh, sorry, I was talking for so long…" she apologized. "You're out of tea, aren't you? I'll get you some more."

Undyne rose from her seat. Something occurred to her, all of a sudden.

"Wait a second."

She glanced over to the stove. "Papyrus… his cooking lesson… _he was supposed to have that right now!"_

A savage expression appeared on her face. "And if he's not here to have it…"

She swiftly pointed to the child.

" _YOU'LL HAVE TO HAVE IT FOR HIM!"_

Undyne leapt into the air, landing on top of the back counter. She furiously lashed with her feet at everything sitting upon it, knocking them all into the air.

"That's right!" she shouted, while soda and sugar spilled all over the floor. "Nothing has brought Papyrus and I closer than cooking!"

"Which means that if I give you his lesson… _WE'LL BECOME CLOSER THAN YOU CAN EVER IMAGINE!_ "

Undyne shot a crazed glare at the child, with a fiery glint in her eye. She passionately pumped a fist into the air, a loud laugh escaping from her throat.

"Afraid!?" she exclaimed. "We're gonna be best friends!"

* * *

Before Frisk could react, Undyne pounced into the air and landed next to her with a loud crash.

As Frisk was lifted into the air by the collar of her shirt, she was immediately battered by an overwhelming wave of emotions, since the situation was all too familiar.

She let out an anguished cry, startling Undyne so much that she nearly dropped her.

"Not by the shirt, huh?" the monster noticed, slowly lowering the child back onto the ground.

She knelt down and picked up Frisk like a toddler, wrapping an arm around the child's waist and hoisting her up.

"Better!?"

"Yeah," the child said with a nod.

"Then here we go!" Undyne shouted. "Hold on tight!"

She leapt halfway across the room, taking the child with her. They landed close to the counter at the back of the room, where the child was dropped onto the floor.

"Let's start with the sauce!" Undyne shouted, pulling out a bunch of tomatoes and other assorted vegetables from her fridge, which was strangely warm.

She set them out on the countertop in front of Frisk.

"Envision these vegetables as your greatest enemy!" Undyne cried, pointing to them with great enjoyment. "Now! Pound them to dust with your fists!"

The child, deciding to have a little fun for once, lashed out at a tomato with as much strength as she could muster.

Unfortunately… she wasn't very strong in the first place. The tomato fell over, rolling a short distance before coming to a stop.

However, this disappointing display of strength failed to quench the flames burning within Undyne's heart.

" _Yeah! Yeah!"_ she yelled. "Our hearts are uniting against these healthy ingredients!"

She raised an arm. "Now it's my turn! Ngahhh!"

While Frisk immediately ducked for cover, Undyne brought her fist down onto the vegetables. The juices splattered all over the countertop, even getting on the walls.

"Uhh, we'll just scrape this into a bowl later," Undyne remarked, wiping pieces of crushed vegetables from her face.

She rushed to the stove nearby, with the child following her. "But for now!"

She struck the wall, causing a small tremor. A pot fell from a cabinet near the ceiling and conveniently landed onto the stovetop.

"…We add the noodles!"

"A word of advice!" Undyne continued, turning to the human. "Homemade noodles are the best!"

She dug around in another cabinet and yanked out a box of dried spaghetti noodles.

" _But I just buy store brand!_ " she shouted, slamming the box on the countertop. " _THEY'RE THE CHEAPEST!_ "

" _NGAHHHHHHHHH!_ "

Undyne finished her shout and panted heavily.

"Uhh, just put them in the pot," she stated.

Before Frisk could bring up something, Undyne grabbed a stool and placed it at the foot of the oven. Which solved the issue that Frisk was going to bring up.

Once the child had stepped onto the stool, she picked up the box and struggled with the packaging. Eventually, she got fed up with it and tossed the box into the pot as hard as she could.

" _YEAH! I'M INTO IT!"_ Undyne yelled.

She pulled out a long spoon from the drawer and handed the end to the human. "Alright! Now it's time to stir the pasta!"

"Now, as a general rule of thumb… the more you stir, _the better it is!"_ she instructed."Ready? Let's do it!"

Frisk had not made spaghetti before, but even she felt that there were some steps missing. Such as adding water, turning the stove on, or perhaps even taking the noodles out of the box in the first place.

She nudged the box around with her spoon.

"Harder!" Undyne beckoned. "Stir harder!"

The child began to use the spoon to jab at the box, but her attempts to stir remained futile.

"Ugh, let me do it!" Undyne shouted with a groan after a few seconds.

A spear materialized in the monster's hand. Frisk hopped off the stool as Undyne approached the pot with an intense expression.

Undyne violently stirred with her spear, tearing at the pot's contents. And at the pot as well.

Once the monster was done "stirring", Frisk took a peek into the heavily-dented pot. Well, at least the noodles were out of the box. Probably because the box had been completely decimated.

"Fuhuhuhu!" Undyne exclaimed. "That's the stuff!"

She pointed to a dial on the stove. "Alright, now for the final step: _turn up the heat!"_

Frisk stepped onto the stool again, summoning forth her determination.

"Let the stovetop symbolize your passion!" Undyne cried. "Let your hopes and dreams turn into burning fire!"

"Ready? Don't hold anything back, 'cause this burner only goes one way! _Right!"_

The child spun the dial to the right as hard as she could. Even though the markings around the dial ended at a certain point, she found that she could turn it far beyond the highest setting.

All the while, a flame formed underneath the pot, steadily growing larger and larger.

"Hotter!" Undyne commanded. "Hotter, darnit! _HOTTER!"_

A few seconds later, Undyne turned away from the child and took a glance at the fire beneath the pot.

Her eye widened. "Wait, that's too—"

Undyne swiftly snatched the child away and immediately dashed out of the house.

Right before everything erupted into flames.

* * *

The two of them stood outside of the burning house, staring at it in silence.

"Oops," the child spoke. That was all that she was able to say at the moment.

The silence continued, punctuated by the sound of the roaring flames.

"Ah," the monster took note. "Man, no wonder Papyrus sucks at cooking."

She slowly turned to the child.

"So what's next?" Undyne optimistically offered. "Scrapbooking? Friendship bracelets?"

She dropped the act. "…Oh, who am I kidding. I really screwed this up, didn't I?"

The monster sighed, shaking her head in disappointment.

"I can't force you to like me, human. Some people just don't get along with each other. And I completely understand if you feel that way about me."

She looked down on the child. "And if we can't be friends… well, that's okay."

Frisk looked back up with a worried expression. She wasn't sure what to say…

"Because…" Undyne continued. "If we're not friends…"

Her expression suddenly shifted to one of intense anger.

" _It means that I can destroy you without regret!_ " she roared.

* * *

Undyne leapt backwards, a spear forming in her hands.

"I've been defeated…" she stated, taking a battle stance. "My house is in shambles… I even failed to befriend you."

She glared at the human, a scorching glow in her eye. "That's it. I don't care if you're my guest anymore."

"One final rematch!" she declared, wielding her weapon with both hands. "All out on both sides! It's the only way I can regain my lost pride!"

Undyne bounced impatiently. " _Now come on!_ _HIT ME WITH ALL YOU'VE GOT! NGAHHHH!"_

Frisk's entire body was trembling, but her legs were the most jittery. They threatened to collapse from beneath her, but it was solely by her determination that she was able to stay up.

She had already hurt Undyne once. And she didn't want to do it again.

"Stop! I don't want to hurt you!" she cried. But Undyne wasn't listening.

"What the hell is the holdup!?" the monster shouted. "C'mon, do your worst, human!"

The child's feet nervously shuffled in place. She didn't want to leave Undyne disappointed, but she didn't want to hurt her either. She wasn't sure what to do…

Suddenly, an idea came to her.

"You can have the first attack!" she offered.

Because even if she got hurt… it was better than having her hurt someone else.

For a moment, Undyne's scowl lessened.

"Wait… are you serious!?" she exclaimed.

"Go ahead! Take it!" Frisk shouted, letting her arms drop to her side.

After some thought, the monster swung her spear outwards.

"Fine! If you insist!" Undyne yelled, with intense enthusiasm in her voice. "Prepare yourself, human!"

She fervently shot herself forwards, her spear aimed directly at its target.

The monster did not strike immediately. When she came close to the human, she thrust out her spear and began to slowly approach, forcing Frisk to back up all the way against the wall.

Undyne's spear hovered in place, poised to strike, the tip just inches away from the human's heart.

Frisk shut her eyes, the pace of her breath becoming swift and unrestrained.

"J-just get it over with…" she choked out.

She let out a sound of discomfort, anxiously waiting for the spear to pierce her… yet it still remained in its place.

The spear wavered for a moment. Undyne's breaths began to slow down, the intensity bleeding out from them.

"You just can't muster any intent to hurt me, huh?" the monster spoke. "You would rather choose to be hurt instead… isn't that right?"

Frisk reopened her eyes. She noticed that Undyne's expression had gone contemplative, as if she was recalling someone that she knew well.

The child quietly nodded in response.

Undyne gradually began to smile. "Heh, you know what? I actually don't want to hurt you either."

The spear dropped to the floor and vanished.

"At first, I hated that stupid saccharine schtick of yours, but when you fought back… it came as a bit of a surprise," she continued, thoughtful and deliberate in tone. "I thought that you had finally stepped up your game."

Even now, Frisk was still surprised by the fact that she had struck back. The action had been fueled by her fear… her anxiety of what would happen if she died.

The monster looked down at her feet. "But then… after you had managed to hurt me… you began to show me mercy. At the time, I didn't understand why, and I couldn't understand why you helped me out back there, either."

Undyne went on, deep in thought. "But the way that you refused to fight back just now, it… reminded me of someone I used to train with."

"And now I know you aren't just some wimpy loser," she said with a huge smile. "You're a wimpy loser with a big heart!"

Frisk couldn't resist the urge to smile back.

The monster's thoughts drifted to someone else. "Just like him…"

She turned her attention back to the child. "Listen, human."

"It seems that you and Asgore are fated to fight," she stated, "but knowing him… he probably doesn't want to."

The statement made Frisk feel much better about the prospect of meeting the king.

"Talk to him," she suggested. "I'm sure you can persuade him to let you go home."

The child liked that idea… but then, something occurred to her.

"But don't you need one more soul?" the child asked, fearing that things wouldn't go so smoothly.

"Oh, that?" Undyne replied. "It's fine! Eventually, some mean human will fall down here… and I'll take _their_ soul instead."

She chuckled. "That makes sense, right?"

The child cheerfully nodded, her vitality returning to her.

"Oh, by the way, if you _do_ hurt Asgore…" Undyne began to add. "I'll take the human souls… cross the barrier… and beat the hell out of you!"

She let out a menacing laugh in a joking manner. "That's what friends are for, right?"

Frisk began to laugh along. She wasn't planning on hurting _anyone_.

They were interrupted by the loud crash of something falling inside the burning house. By then, the fire had spread to the house's entirety, with little signs of dying away anytime soon.

"Want to get the hell away from that flaming house?" Undyne offered.

The child glanced over to it. "Agreed."

"Then let's get going!"

* * *

Once they had reached a safe distance from the house…

"Well, that was fun, huh?" Undyne stated. "We'll have to hang out again another time!"

She scratched the back of her head. "But, uh, somewhere else I guess. And… uhh… sorry for trying to kill you earlier, I guess?"

"But seriously, wasn't it the _best!?"_ she joked. "Like when I decided to _not_ do that _boring_ monologue… and then went _totally_ off-the-cuff!?"

Frisk began to giggle, temporarily casting away the scary feelings associated with those memories.

"Or when I almost killed you with those arrows!?" Undyne continued. "Or when I almost killed you with _more_ arrows!?"

The child had burst into laughter.

"Aw man, that was fun!" the monster continued, with a huge grin on her face. "Let's do that again sometime!"

"No thank you!" Frisk interjected, eliciting another round of laughter from both of them.

Once they were done, they looked over to the mess that they had recently made.

"Um… sorry about your house," the child said.

"Oh, it's fine!" Undyne replied. "It's not like I haven't burned down my house before!"

She turned back to Frisk. "In the meantime, I guess I'll go hang with Papyrus. So if you need me, drop by Snowdin, okay!?"

The child nodded subconsciously, considering the option in her head. Perhaps she should come back to Snowdin some time…

Undyne added something else. "And if you ever need help… just give Papyrus a ring, ok? Since we're in the same spot, I'll be able to talk too!"

"Alright, I will!" Frisk exclaimed.

With that, Undyne was about to say goodbye, but then she thought of something else to say. "Oh! One more thing! You're heading towards the barrier, right?"

"Yep!" came the reply.

Undyne pointed in the direction where Frisk had arrived in Waterfall earlier. "Just ask the river person to take you to Hotland! Head through there, and you'll be at the king's castle in no time!"

Her voice suddenly grew a little quieter.

"By the way… if you meet someone named Alphys… can you say hi for me?"

"Sure!" the child responded.

Undyne grinned at her new friend. "Well, I think that's it! See ya later, punk!"

And she bolted away, running all the way to Snowdin.

* * *

As Frisk was about to leave to find the river person, she heard a voice from behind her.

"Seriously, Frisk?"

She spun around, finding a tall golden flower right behind her. And it had an irritated look on its face.

It was a little concerning to find out that Flowey had learned her name.

"You were beginning so well," he began to explain. "Then, for whatever reason… you just stopped!"

It took a second for Frisk to realize that he was to referring to her fight with Undyne.

His expression shifted to a more disturbing one. "And I've told you before: in this world, it's kill or be killed!"

The flower shook his head.

"So why'd you have to screw it up!?" he asked, his voice steadily filling with contempt. "Are you messing around with me or something? Is this your idea of a joke!?"

A shudder ran down Frisk's spine, managing to recall the look on Undyne's face as she had attacked her.

"No… it's that… I felt so _terrible!_ " she cried. "I don't want to hurt anyone anymore!"

The flower's expression changed to one of curiosity.

"Hmm. Let me ask you a question."

Flowey continued, calm and composed. "What if I tried to kill you? Would I be deserving of your mercy?"

Frisk honestly didn't have an answer for that. Unlike Undyne… Flowey didn't really seem to care about anyone. But the idea of killing someone still made her uncomfortable.

"I… don't know," she admitted, looking down at her shoes.

Flowey sorta expected that response, but it was still an interesting one, all the same.

"One day, you'll be confronted by someone that you can't run away from," Flowey deliberately said. "One that will not hesitate to kill you, if you give them the chance."

There was one person that Flowey especially had in mind. But the human would have plenty of time to think about it before she would meet him.

"What will you do then?" he asked. "Are you going to get yourself killed… or will you fight back?"

Frisk was silent, having no idea of what to say.

"Well, do what you will," Flowey stated. "I'll be waiting."

And with that, he burrowed into the ground.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Fun fact: the song that plays outside of Undyne's house before her hangout? "She's Playing Piano"? One with a good ear can tell that it bears resemblance to a part of Alphys's theme. Toby, you sly dog.**

 **I just want to say that this was a really fun chapter to write. Probably one of my favorites so far.**

 **Finally… I might have to go on a bit of… hiatus, perhaps? I might get some chapters out during the next few weeks, but don't count on it. We'll see.**

 **What perils and dangers await Frisk in Hotland? FIND OUT NEXT EPISODE!**

 **ER, NEXT TIME!**


	16. Metal Crusher

Frisk approached the riverperson. Once she got close, the figure's head slowly turned towards her.

"Tra la la," it greeted. "Care for a ride?"

The child silently nodded.

"I see… where will we go today?"

"To Hotland," the child stated.

"Then we're off…"

As soon as Frisk climbed onto the boat, it began to float down the river.

"Tra la la," the riverperson sang. "The angel is coming... tra la la."

Frisk didn't think that trying to ask the riverperson further about it would do much, so she just mulled the words over in her head.

Soon, the boat floated to another stretch of land.

* * *

Frisk entered into Hotland, feeling the hot air against her face. She rolled up the sleeves of her shirt, since it helped to relieve some extra heat.

She looked to her left, noticing the water cooler sitting over there. That meant that she was not far from the spot where she had helped Undyne.

A path located in front of her was blocked off by a pair of monsters standing there. They solemnly stood there, their pitch-black armor glistening from the light of the lava.

Frisk didn't want to try to get past those monsters, so she glanced over to her right, noticing the large building standing off to the side. There was a sign above the entrance that read "LAB".

Seeing such a strange laboratory in a place like this sparked her curiosity. She went towards the building, wishing to examine it.

As she approached the door, it quickly slid open. She squeaked in surprise, afraid that someone else had opened it… but nobody came out. The door remained open, inviting her to enter.

She summoned her determination and went through it.

* * *

As she walked in, the temperature around her suddenly dropped, sending a shiver down her back. The door automatically shut behind her, stopping the cold air from leaking out.

The lights were completely shut off. A large monitor sat by the wall, but it was too dark to make out anything else.

The child approached the monitor, being surprised by the sight of her own face. It seemed that someone was using a camera to monitor her.

She brought her mouth into a grin, watching as the image on the screen changed along with her movements. She then placed a hand over half of her face and watched as the figure in the screen did the same.

The child tore her eyes away from it and began to venture deeper into the building.

Suddenly, after a few more steps, a door in the wall ahead of her slid open.

Frisk watched silently as a monster in a lab coat stepped out. It resembled a lizard, wearing a pair of thick glasses in front of her eyes.

Her hand casually flipped a switch on the wall, immediately flooding the lab with light. She calmly waddled into the middle of the lab… until she noticed the human standing there.

An expression of shock rose on her face.

"Oh. My god," the monster began.

She glanced around, viewing herself and the neglected state of the lab.

"I didn't expect you to show up so soon!" she exclaimed, anxiously fidgeting about. "I haven't showered, I'm barely dressed, it's all messy, and…"

Meanwhile, Frisk watched on with curiosity, surprised that a stranger would think so highly of her.

The monster slowly calmed back down, pulling herself back together.

"Ummm… h-h-hiya!" she nervously greeted, with a little wave of hello. "I'm Dr. Alphys. I'm Asgore's royal scientist!"

Immediately, Frisk recalled the request that Undyne had for her.

"Oh, Undyne says hi!" she stated.

Alphys let out a shy, timid laugh. "Oh, r-really? Th-that's great! Tell her that I- I said hi back!"

"A-anyways…" the monster stuttered, "your name's Frisk, right? It's, um, nice to meet you!"

Frisk was busy glancing back at the monitor, with a look of concern on her face. Sure, she was a human in a place that had no other humans, but… she was still surprised that someone was so interested in her.

After all, she had never really stood out, back on the surface. Perhaps that was a part of why she was never adopted…

"D-don't worry!" the monster exclaimed. "I'm not one of the 'bad guys'!"

Alphys didn't seem like one, by the way she was acting. That was a relief, since the child didn't want to get in trouble so soon in Hotland.

"Actually, since you stepped out of the ruins, I've, um… been "observing" your journey through my console," Alphys began to explain, her eyes awkwardly affixed to the floor as she made her way over to the computer by the wall.

"Your fights… your friendships… everything! H-here, let me show you something!"

A flurry of images appeared on the screen. The door to the ruins in the forest. The malfunctioning tile puzzle. The bridge with the echo flower at the end. The garbage dump. These were places that Frisk recognized.

She honestly wasn't sure what to think of it, finding out that someone had been watching her the entire time.

Alphys glanced back at the human, who was intently staring at the screen. "I was originally going to stop you, but… watching someone on a screen really makes you root for them, y'know?"

"S-so, ahhh… now I want to help you!" she stated. "Using my knowledge, I can easily guide you through Hotland! I know a way right to Asgore's castle, no problem!"

"That's great!" the child said, turning back to Alphys with a smile on her face.

The monster's expression immediately grew apprehensive. "Well, actually, umm, there's just a… a tiny issue."

"Oh." The child's smile began to drop. "What is it?"

The monster tapped her fingers together. "A long time ago, I made a robot named Mettaton."

Hmm… Frisk recalled that name from somewhere.

"Originally, I built him to be an entertainment robot," Alphys continued. "Uh, you know, like a robotic TV star or something."

Oh yeah, Papyrus had mentioned someone named Mettaton. He didn't really mention much, however…

"Anyway, recently I decided to make him more useful. You know, just some small practical adjustments."

Alphys's voice quivered.

"Like, um… anti… anti-human combat features?"

The child frowned. That didn't sound small, and that didn't sound practical at all.

"Of c-course," the monster continued, "when I saw you coming, I immediately decided… I have to remove those features! Unfortunately, I may have made a teensy mistake while doing so."

"And, um… ahh… well…"

"What's wrong?" the child asked.

"Now he's an unstoppable killing machine with a thirst for human blood?" Alphys spouted.

The color drained from the child's face. If something like that came after her, she might not be able to escape…

"Ehehehehe…" came a nervous laugh from Alphys. "…Heh."

"But, ummm, hopefully we won't run into him!" she added.

 _Clang._

The child's eyes darted around the room, looking for the source. But it seemed that Alphys was unsure of where it was coming from, either.

 _CLANG._

It was louder this time. It sounded that whatever was making that noise was coming closer.

"Hm… did you hear something?" the monster asked, although the answer was pretty obvious. Frisk had definitely heard something.

 _CLANG._

The entire lab was shaking now.

 _CLANG._

As the clanging noises grew louder and faster, Frisk's heart began to race. She began to hyperventilate, in response to the anxiety that ran through her body.

 _CLANG. CLANG. CLANG._

"Oh no," Alphys muttered.

Immediately afterwards, with a bang and a sputter, the lights shut off, causing a pitch-black shadow to fall over the lab.

All was silent, until…

* * *

" _OHHHH YES!"_

* * *

"WELCOME, BEAUTIES…" a deep, synthesized voice spoke.

After a drumroll had played, a solitary light shone down, revealing the form of Mettaton beneath it.

When Papyrus had called him a "sexy rectangle", Frisk didn't think that he meant a literal rectangle. But before her, there it was. A robot in the shape of a rectangular box.

Long, mechanical arms stuck out from the sides, with white gloves on the end. One hand held onto a microphone.

The box's face had a panel of glowing red and yellow lights, making out the shape of an M. Beneath it was an array of assorted buttons and dials, and the entirety was balanced solely upon a single wheel.

"…TO TODAY'S QUIZ SHOW!" he finished.

Immediately, music began to play as disco balls appeared, filling the room with multicolored lights. A spray of confetti shot down from the ceiling, coating everyone below in it.

Above Mettaton, a huge sign reading "Game Show" slowly floated down.

"OH BOY!" the robot exclaimed. "I CAN ALREADY TELL IT'S GONNA BE A GREAT SHOW!"

He gestured to the human. "EVERYONE GIVE A BIG HAND FOR OUR WONDERFUL CONTESTANT!"

The child was immediately pelted with a generous rain of colorful confetti. This was accompanied by a recorded track of clapping, while Mettaton tapped his palms together repeatedly.

"NEVER PLAYED BEFORE, GORGEOUS?" the robot asked, turning to face the child.

Frisk shook her head, not knowing what to make of this. She was stricken speechless.

"WELL, THAT'S NO PROBLEM AT ALL!" Mettaton stated, as a screen began to roll down behind him. "IT'S SIMPLE! THERE'S ONLY ONE RULE."

He moved out of the way, placing the screen into full view. "ANSWER CORRECTLY…"

Out of nowhere, a drumroll played.

 _"OR YOU DIE!"_

* * *

Before Frisk could react, a podium came up through the floor in front of her. There were four buttons upon it: A, B, C, and D.

"LET'S START WITH AN EASY ONE!" Mettaton exclaimed.

A question appeared on the huge screen, with the answer choices appearing beneath it after a few seconds.

* * *

What's the prize for answering correctly?

A) Money  
B) Mercy  
C) New car  
D) More questions

* * *

Frisk snapped to her senses and urgently observed the answer choices. As hopeful as she was that the answer was B, it seemed very unlikely.

D seemed like the correct choice, so Frisk went ahead and quickly pressed down on the corresponding button.

Fortunately, a victory sound played, accompanied by a spray of confetti from the ceiling.

"RIGHT!" Mettaton stated. "SOUNDS LIKE YOU GET IT!"

He waved to the child. "HERE'S YOUR TERRIFIC PRIZE! MORE QUESTIONS!"

Yaaayyy.

* * *

What's the king's full name?

A) Lord Fluffybuns  
B) Fuzzy Pushover  
C) Asgore Dreemurr  
D) Dr. Friendship

* * *

Frisk immediately slammed her hand down on C. Undyne had said it herself.

"CORRECT!" Mettaton shouted, accompanied by more sounds and confetti. "WHAT A TERRIFIC ANSWER!"

The quiz show continued on. "BUT ENOUGH ABOUT YOU. LET'S TALK ABOUT ME!"

* * *

What are robots made of?

A) Hopes and Dreams  
B) Metal and Magic  
C) Snips and Snails  
D) Sugar and Spice

* * *

The child picked B, since robots were made of metal. And magic seemed pretty likely, since monsters used it a lot.

She felt a wave of relief as the familiar sound and confetti told her that she was right. She was getting used to this, to some extent.

"TOO EASY FOR YOU, HUH?" Mettaton stated. "HERE'S ANOTHER EASY ONE FOR YOU!"

* * *

Two trains, Train A and Train B, simultaneously depart Station A and Station B. Station A and Station B are 252.5 miles apart from each other. Train A is moving at 124.7mph towards Station B, and Train B is moving at 253.5mph towards station A. If both trains departed at 10:00AM and it is now 10:08, how much longer until both trains pass each other?

A) 31.054 minutes  
B) 16.232 minutes  
C) 32.049 minutes  
D) 32.058 minutes

* * *

Correction: Frisk was not getting used to this at all.

She had stopped trying to comprehend the question about halfway through. Math wasn't one of her strongest subjects, but even if she had paid more attention in math class, it probably wouldn't have helped her much.

"Umm… uhhh…" she stuttered.

As the timer on the screen counted down into the single-digits, she anxiously pressed one of the buttons at random. Instead of victory sounds and confetti, she was greeted with a _BZZT._

"WRONG!" Mettaton exclaimed. "WRONG! _WROOOOOOOONG!_ "

A laser shot out from the ceiling, directly striking the child's soul. She shuddered at the rush of pain that coursed through her.

"IF ONLY ALPHYS COULD HELP!" the robot remarked. "MAYBE SHE WOULD KNOW THE ANSWER!"

Mettaton continued with mocking sympathy in his voice. "BUT ALAS! IT SEEMS THAT OUR CONTESTANT IS DOOMED TO FAIL! _OH DEAR!_ "

He waved back to the child. "BY THE WAY, DON'T 'COUNT' ON YOUR VICTORY… YOU'LL NEED THAT SKILL FOR OUR NEXT QUESTION!"

* * *

How many flies are in this jar?

A) 54  
B) 53  
C) 55  
D) 52

* * *

An image accompanied the question, which was a jar filled to the brim with many pixelated flies. They flew all over the place and were very difficult to count individually.

Frisk bit her lip in worry. The questions had gotten much trickier, all of a sudden. And if she didn't get them right… well, she really didn't want to think about it.

Wait a minute. What was stopping Alphys from helping, anyways?

The child glanced over to Alphys, who was standing off to the side. She was signalling to the child, her hands in the shape of an A.

Frisk went ahead and pressed the corresponding button. To her relief, the answer was correct.

"CORRECT! YOU'RE SO LUCKY TODAY!" Mettaton exclaimed. "NOW, LET'S PLAY A MEMORY GAME!"

* * *

What monster is this?

A) Froggit  
B) Whimsun  
C) Moldsmal  
D) Mettaton

* * *

The picture that accompanied it looked exactly like half of a Froggit's face, but… as the child went to press A, her hand continued to hover right over the button, her intuition stopping her from pressing it.

She turned to Alphys. She was signalling… D?

Frisk quickly moved her hand to the corresponding button. The victory noise played, the room filling with another spray of confetti.

"I'M SO FLATTERED YOU REMEMBERED!" the robot shouted.

The image panned out… revealing Mettaton in a shirt with a Froggit's face on it.

The child let out an exasperated sigh. Of _course_ it was Mettaton.

"BUT CAN YOU GET THIS ONE?"

* * *

Would you smooch a ghost?

A) Heck Yeah  
B) Heck Yeah  
C) Heck Yeah  
D) Heck Yeah

* * *

… what.

Alphys glared at the screen, not really sure what she was looking at, either.

The timer was counting up instead of down, giving Frisk plenty of time to contemplate which answer to pick. Not that she really needed it.

She pressed a button at random.

"GREAT ANSWER!" Mettaton said, the victory noise being a little distorted this time. "I LOVE IT!"

"HERE'S A SIMPLE ONE. I'M SURE THAT OUR LOVELY CONTESTANT WILL BREEZE THEIR WAY PAST IT!"

* * *

How many letters in the name Mettaton… nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn—

* * *

The name kept stretching on longer and longer, snaking around the answer choices and filling up the sides of the screen. Meanwhile, the answer choices themselves were increasing as well.

Alphy signaled a C to the child, who then pressed the corresponding button. Thankfully, it was the correct answer.

"OF COURSE THAT WAS EASY FOR YOU!" the robot stated.

He rose a finger into the air. "NOW… IT'S TIME TO BREAK OUT THE BIG GUNS!"

Thankfully, that was only a figure of speech.

* * *

In the dating simulation video game "Mew Mew Kissy Cutie", what is Mew Mew's favorite food?

* * *

Before the answer choices had a chance to reveal themselves, Alphys spoke up.

" _Oh! Oh! I know this one!"_ she shouted, waving an arm in the air. _"It's snail ice cream!"_

Frisk turned to her with surprise.

" _In the fourth chapter everyone goes to the beach, and she buys ice cream for all of her friends!"_ Alphys explained, passion emanating from her voice. _"But it's snail flavor and she's the only one who wants it!"_

" _It's one of my favorite parts of the game because it's actually a very powerful message about_ friendship and…"

The monster's speech slowed to a stop, realizing where she was and what she had just done.

"ALPHYS, ALPHYS, ALPHYS," Mettaton began, waggling a finger in the air. "TSK, TSK. YOU AREN'T HELPING OUR CONTESTANT, ARE YOU?"

The monster nervously shook her head, sweat falling down the side of her head.

"OOOOOOH! YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME," Mettaton went on in a scornful manner. "DON'T YOU KNOW THAT CHEATING IS _AGAINST THE RULES?_ "

"No, I, um—" Alphys stuttered.

"I KNOW _EXACTLY_ WHAT TO DO!" the robot exclaimed. "I'LL ASK A QUESTION… YOU'LL BE SURE TO KNOW THE ANSWER TO!"

"No, Mettaton!" she cried out, placing her hands over her mouth. "N-not that one—"

* * *

Who does Dr. Alphys have a crush on?

A) Undyne  
B) Asgore  
C) The human  
D) Don't know

* * *

Alphys held her hands out, silently begging the child not to answer the question. So, it seemed that Frisk wasn't going to receive any help for this one.

If she was going to be honest, Frisk didn't know. But it was better to guess, right?

She eliminated D, and then went ahead and eliminated C. She just hoped that Alphys didn't have a crush on her, since that would have been really weird. And sorta creepy.

She glanced over to the timer, seeing that it wasn't counting down at all.

After a few more seconds of thought, Frisk eventually decided on picking Asgore. The king seemed to be a nice person, so it would be understandable if someone had a crush on him. No offense to Undyne, of course.

As soon as her hand landed on the B button, Alphys put on an expression of intense shock. She immediately began to bury her face in her hands, a scarlet blush covering its entirety.

"LET ME PRESENT TO YOU A QUESTION," Mettaton began. "WHY WOULD DR. ALPHYS OUTFIT AN AMUSEMENT ROBOT SUCH AS I… WITH BRUTAL ANTI-HUMAN COMBAT CAPABILITIES?"

That was something that had confused Frisk, but… she began to understand a little better now.

"IT'S SIMPLE," the robot continued. "TO IMPRESS MR. ASGORE DREEMURR, OF COURSE! OR AS ALPHYS CALLS HIM... 'MR. DREAMY.'"

He wheeled over to the lizard monster. _"OOOOOOH!_ ISN'T THAT RIGHT, _ALPHYS?_ "

She stuttered some more. "Err— no, I—"

"THOSE STRONG ARMS…" Mettaton interrupted, his voice smooth and silky. "THAT LUSTROUS BEARD… LIKE ALL THOSE WHO CREATE WEAPONS, SHE CRAVES THE TENDER EMBRACE OF A BURLY MAN."

Alphys turned away from the situation, becoming even more flustered.

The robot gestured to her. "SEE? CAN SHE TRULY BE BLAMED?"

He turned his attention back to Frisk, leaving Alphys to herself in the corner.

"WELL WELL WELL," Mettaton stated. "WITH DR. ALPHYS HELPING YOU… THE SHOW HAS NO DRAMATIC TENSION! WE CAN'T GO ON LIKE THIS!"

The screen began to roll back up, sending a wave of relief over the child. The large sign and the disco balls retreated back into the ceiling.

"BUT. BUT!" the robot said for dramatic effect. "THIS WAS JUST THE PILOT EPISODE! NEXT UP, MORE DRAMA!"

"MORE ROMANCE!" he shouted, mockingly waving a finger in Alphys's general direction.

"MORE BLOODSHED!" Mettaton cried, menacingly lifting his hands into the air.

"UNTIL NEXT TIME, DARLINGS! TOODLES!"

Mettaton's arms retreated into his body. The wheel at the bottom of the box became replaced by a roaring flame, launching him up into the air and right through a hidden trapdoor in the ceiling.

* * *

Soon, everything seemed to be back to normal, bar the hole in the wall and the thick layer of confetti that covered the floor.

Alphys turned around, having mostly recovered from her embarrassment.

"Well that was certainly something," she remarked.

Her gaze lowered to the floor.

"Th-that last question…" she muttered to herself. "He wasn't s-supposed to ask that one…"

The child began to walk around, taking a glance around the lab.

"W-wait a minute!" Alphys spoke. "Let me give you my ph-phone number!

The child fetched the cell phone from her bag.

"Th-then… m-maybe… if you need help, I could…"

The monster's eyes widened from behind her glasses, upon the sight of Frisk's cell phone.

"Wh... where'd you get that phone!?" she exclaimed, taking it from the child's hands. "It's _ancient!_ It doesn't even have texting! W-wait a second, please!"

Before Frisk could consider telling Alphys where she had gotten her phone, the monster rushed off with it, entering another room in her laboratory.

After a few minutes, the sound of power tools and other loud noises filling the lab, Alphys emerged.

"Here, I upgraded it for you!" she stated, holding the cell phone out to her. "It can do texting, items, it's got a keychain… I even signed you up for the underground's number-one social network!"

"Where did the buttons go?" the child asked, observing her new phone in her hands.

Frisk had noticed only one at the bottom, with the screen taking up nearly the entire face.

"Oh, that's easy!" Alphys began to explain. "Th-this phone, um, has this screen th-that you can use your fingers with!"

Frisk began to experiment, pressing the button. She swiped at the screen, finding that the phone reacted to her touch.

"Now we're officially friends!" Alphys stated.

She began to laugh, but it had ended rather awkwardly. Her gaze nervously shifted away from the child.

"I'm going to the bathroom."

As a door in the wall slid open, the monster headed right through it. Meanwhile, the child watched on in bewilderment.

Alphys was strange.

* * *

Frisk brushed away the confetti and took a seat on the floor, planning to mess around with her new phone.

She found that she was able to access a pair of dimensional boxes, one of which contained everything that she had placed into the boxes earlier.

That explained quite a lot about them.

She poked around some more. There seemed to be some other features.

A few applications had caught her attention. They were labelled "Jetpack", "Bomb Defuser", and "Yellow Mode" respectively.

She cautiously tapped on the jetpack one, not really sure what would happen.

"ACCESS DENIED," the screen read.

Hmm… that was weird.

Frisk decided that it was time to finally figure out how to make calls with the thing in her hands.

She tapped an application labelled "Phone". She found Papyrus's number and tapped on it, initiating a call.

* * *

After a single ring, Papyrus picked up on the other end.

"Hey there, Papyrus!" she greeted.

"HELLO, FRISK!" the skeleton said back. "WHERE ARE YOU NOW?"

"Alphys's lab!" the child stated.

"A LAB? MY BROTHER WOULD LOVE THAT! HE LOVES SCIENCE FICTION! ESPECIALLY WHEN IT'S REAL."

Suddenly, another voice entered the conversation.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing, talking to Frisk without me!?"

"PLEASE DON'T NOOGIE THE PHONE THIS TIME," Papyrus worriedly stated to the newcomer.

He held his phone up between him and Undyne.

"What's up, Frisk?" the fish monster greeted. "Have you been to Alphys's lab yet!?"

"Yeah. Actually, I'm there right now."

"Is she there…?"

The child nodded, until she remembered that Undyne couldn't see her over the phone.

"Yeah, she was. She's currently in the bathroom, though…"

"Hey, did you tell her that I said hi?"

"Yep!"

"Oh, tell me how she's doing! And tell me if she needs anything, and…"

All of a sudden, Undyne changed her mind. "Wait! No! Don't ask any of that!""

She swiftly decided to change the subject.

"Hey, I had an idea!" she exclaimed. "Why don't we all go over sometime and watch some anime?

"ANIME?" Papyrus asked. "ISN'T THAT A KIND OF CARTOON FOR SMALL CHILDREN?"

"Oh my god!" Undyne exclaimed. "Anime isn't just for kids! It's deep! It's _emotional!"_

"WAIT… UNDYNE, DO YOU LIKE ANIME?"

"Yeah! Alphys has a collection! We watch it together all the time!"

"I MEAN, I'VE NEVER SEEN ANY," the skeleton admitted. "MAYBE I ACTUALLY DO LIKE ANIME!"

Undyne snickered. "Aww, you don't have to say that, Papyrus…"

"MAYBE I'M A BABY WHO LOVES CARTOONS FOR CHILDREN!"

Frisk cringed. It wasn't a bright idea to him to say that.

" _You don't have to say that, Papyrus!_ " Undyne cried. " _Come over here!"_

"AHHH!"

The sound of background noise came through loudly on Frisk's end of the call.

"We'll be right back!" Undyne stated "We just need to take care of some business!"

"OH NO! NOT BUSINESS— AAAGH!"

And then the call ended.

* * *

A minute later, the child's phone rang.

"Sorry about that!" came the voice on the other end.

"What happened?" the child asked.

"Nothing in particular," Undyne stated. "Just a good old-fashioned _noogie of friendship!"_

Meanwhile, a pained moan came from Papyrus.

Frisk thought of something to ask.

"Is there anything that I should know about Hotland?"

"HOTLAND, HUH…" the skeleton began, having quickly recovered. "I KNOW IT LIKE THE BACK OF MY HAND… WHICH, SINCE I'M ALWAYS WEARING GLOVES… I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT!"

That was kinda disappointing.

"AND UNFORTUNATELY, I DON'T BELIEVE THAT UNDYNE KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT HOTLAND EITHER."

"So we'll just have to _combine our power!"_ Undyne shouted.

"ZERO PLUS ZERO IS STILL ZERO."

"Yeah, but it's a big zero!"

Frisk did not believe that math worked like that.

"ANYWAYS, YOU'RE PROBABLY BETTER OFF ASKING SANS," Papyrus explained. "HE SHOULD KNOW MORE THAN WE DO… SINCE HE HAS AT LEAST TWO STATIONS THERE, LAST TIME I CHECKED."

Undyne became confused by this. "What? I thought he only had three stations: one in Snowdin Forest, one in Waterfall, and one at the edge of Hotland?"

"NO, HE HAS... AT LEAST FOUR?"

"Who the heck keeps hiring this guy!?"

"I HAVE NO IDEA!"

Papyrus decided to change the subject.

"BY THE WAY, I HEARD YOU GOT TO MEET METTATON!" he stated.

"Where did you hear that?" Frisk asked.

"EVERYONE ON THE INTERNET'S ALREADY TALKING ABOUT THE HUMAN ON HIS LATEST SHOW! I MEAN, THAT'S YOU, RIGHT?"

The child blinked. "…I think?"

Until then, she had not considered that she was on TV. It was a scary thought, imagining that everyone was watching her.

That also meant that everything that Mettaton had stated about Alphys's crush on Asgore was televised.

…Ouch.

"Really? Careful, that dude gives me bad vibes," Undyne stated.

"WH-WHAT? BUT HE'S SO POPULAR…"

"I don't care about people just because they're popular."

"WELL, YOU CAN SAY THAT BECAUSE YOU'RE POPULAR."

"Pssshhht, what!?" Undyne laughed. "Popular with who?"

"YOU'RE POPULAR WITH ME!" the skeleton exclaimed.

"Awww... Papyrus, you're popular with me, too."

"AWW, WOWIE!"

Papyrus realized something. "WAIT… DOES THAT MEAN YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT ME…?"

"Of course not!" Undyne stated. "Want me to show you how much I care—"

"NO THANK YOU!"

"Fine, fine."

Papyrus turned his attention to the person on the other end. "BY THE WAY, YOU SHOULD COME TO SNOWDIN AND VISIT ME!"

"No way!" Undyne shouted. "Come to Snowdin and visit me!"

"WHAT!? WE'RE IN THE SAME LOCATION!"

"Wrong! I'm standing slightly to the right!"

The child laughed. "Does that mean I can't visit you both at the same time?"

"Heck no!" Undyne replied. "You would have to visit us one at a time!"

"WHAT!? WHY!?"

"Come on! Make your choice! Which one of us are you going to visit first!?"

The child came up with a response. "I'll have to find a way to see you both first, because I can't decide!"

"YEAH, I'M SURE YOU'LL FIND A WAY!"

They were interrupted by a beeping noise from Papyrus's phone.

"WHOOPSIES!" the skeleton exclaimed. "MY PHONE'S ALMOST OUT OF BATTERIES! WE'LL HAVE TO CHAT LATER!"

"Bye, guys!" Frisk said.

"BYE BYE FOR NOW!"  
"See ya, punk!"

The child hung up, wearing a smile on her face.

* * *

Frisk rose from her spot on the floor and walked around, exploring the laboratory.

Alphys was still behind the door, mumbling something to herself. Whatever she was doing down there, she was certainly taking a long time.

The child found an operating escalator to the upper floor. She stepped onto it and rode it all the way up.

She was greeted at the top by the sight of several bookcases. One of them seemed to be full of scientific books, but it was covered by a layer of dust.

The other bookcases were marked as "Human History." The child took ahold of a book at random and yanked it off.

She found that it was a comic book, in a language that she had never seen before. One illustration was of a giant robot fighting a beautiful alien princess. Whatever the book was talking about, it probably wasn't very accurate to human history.

She carefully placed it back into its spot and began to walk on, observing the rest of the floor.

Off to the side was a strange machine with pink goop dripping from one end. A dusty work table with a chainsaw on top of it sat by it, with a poster of a human girl with cat ears on her head hanging from the wall nearby.

Since the child was distracted by all of this, she had accidentally placed her foot onto a fast-moving conveyor belt on the floor, sending her wildly off-balance.

Frisk fell down onto the conveyor belt, pain rushing down her side as she landed on the ground. She turned over and struggled to get back up, but found that she was unable to, since the ground beneath her was constantly shifting.

The child panicked. She clawed to escape the conveyor belt beneath her, screaming as it began to send her all the way to the other end of the room.

Eventually, she managed to roll off of the conveyor belt… and right into a desk, covering her in the unopened letters that sat on it.

She laid on the ground for a moment, combating the nausea washing over her, while punctuating the low hum of the machinery with her whimpering.

Frisk took deep breaths, trying not to be overwhelmed by her shock.

Once she had calmed down a little, the child examined one of the letters on the floor in front of her. She saw that it had been written by… Snowy?

The child got up, her curiosity taking hold of her. She picked up another one and noticed that it had been written by Doggo.

She gathered the letters that had spilled on the ground, noticing a few more names: Aaron, Shyren, someone called Final Froggit…

She got back up and placed the letters back on the desk in a neat pile, wondering what they were for. Why weren't they opened? Why did these monsters feel the need to send these letters to Alphys?

Was there something that wasn't obvious about her?

Frisk pushed the matter aside for the time being, glancing back at the conveyor belt that she had fallen on.

It was just a conveyor belt that passed through the room. There wasn't really much to fear from it.

Feeling a little embarrassed, the child took the nearby escalator to the lower floor, having done enough here.

* * *

Frisk walked to the other side of the lab, where the exit was located. As she approached the door, it opened by itself, letting in a burst of hot air.

She took a deep breath and stared out into the distance. After she would pass through Hotland… she would be one step closer to leaving the underground.

So the child gathered her determination and passed right through.

* * *

Meanwhile, a skeleton approached the door within the forest. He knocked at the door, making a couple of loud, satisfying thumps.

"knock knock."

After a few seconds of silence, a voice came from the other side.

"Who is there?"

"etch."

"Etch who?"

"gesundheit," the skeleton remarked, eliciting laughter from the other side.

"It is nice to talk with you, Sans," the person stated from behind the door.

"you too, old lady."

The woman's voice grew a little softer.

"You remember the promise that you made for me, do you not?"

"yeah. wouldn't forget it."

"Have you seen a human pass your way?" the woman asked.

"yep. i was going to mention it to you, but… you weren't around, last time i came by here."

"My apologies. Is she alright?"

The woman's voice was filled with long, aching worry.

"i did what i promised to do," Sans stated. "i helped her out of a jam recently."

"What kind?"

"she was being chased by the captain of the royal guard, so i provided a distraction to give her more time to get away," the skeleton explained. "and then, when she fell asleep, i brought her back to a place where she wouldn't be in any danger."

"Oh, I see. I hope that you did not get into too much trouble."

"nah, it's fine."

Sans was silent for a moment, taking some time to think about something.

"by the way, my brother… he seems to be getting along with her pretty well," he continued. "so, i mean, that worked out."

"That is good to hear. Where is she right now?"

"she should be making her way through hotland, pretty soon."

"I see…"

"yeah, it doesn't seem that much is going to stop her. she's very determined."

The skeleton began to turn around.

"well, i have to go to work now. can't be caught slacking off, after all."

"Goodbye," came the voice from the other side. "And thank you…"

"talk with ya soon, old lady."

* * *

 **AN:**

 **WELCOME TO HOTLAND, BOYS AND GIRLS!**

 **We're kicking things off with a rather silly chapter.**

 **I had a hard time deciding whether to include the dialogue about Alphys's crush on Asgore or Undyne. That being said, the expression that she gives if you select "the human"… it's just great. And the thumbs up she gives you if you select "Don't know" is hilarious as well.**

 **The conveyor belt part was a last minute addition, since I wanted to try my hand at writing something terrifying without going overboard.**

 **I'm really excited for the Hotland segment, since we have access now to pretty much the whole cast (besides Asgore of course). This ought to be fun.**

 **Next time: things begin to really heat up, pardon the overused pun.**


	17. Another Medium

**Sorry for the bit of delay: certain scenes in the Heartache and Bonetrousle rewrites were giving me trouble.**

 **Only Heartache has been revamped, as of current. I suggest that you check that out before you read this chapter. Bonetrousle will get a full revamp one day, just not today.**

 **Also, a random, not very relevant fact: I have just 100% completed Kirby: Planet Robobot, over the course of a week.**

 **Make of that as you will.**

* * *

As the door automatically closed behind her, Frisk nervously gulped down the sweltering, dry Hotland air.

Before she could bring herself to proceed any further, the phone in her hand emitted a short sound. She rose it to her face, finding that the screen read "ALPHYS updated status."

Below it read: "just realized i didn't watch undyne fight the human v.v"

The child frowned. Even after making friends with Undyne, it still wasn't very pleasant to remember.

Immediately afterwards, the phone sounded again, bringing up a new message.

"well i know she's unbeatable i'll ask her abt it later."

Another message soon followed it.

"for now i gotta call up the human and guide them =^.^="

The messages seemed to end there.

As the phone went to Frisk's pocket, a sense of stuffiness surrounding her right hand reminded her that she was still wearing a glove. Deftly, she plucked it off, wiggling her fingers, and transferred it to her backpack.

The child looked back up and began to walk onward, feeling the hot air brush past her face.

* * *

As she proceeded forwards, Frisk froze at the sight that lay ahead of her: a system consisting of more conveyor belts. At least they didn't seem to move as quickly as the one in Alphys's lab.

The child went over to one and cautiously stepped onto it, affixing her eyes to the ground beneath her. Once both her feet were on, she stood firmly in place, too intimidated by the machinery to move on her own accord. The seemingly bottomless abyss below was not helping matters.

As she stood there, she only then realized how sore her legs were, since they had been overworked over the last few days. For a moment, she loosened them a little, letting the conveyor belt send her away.

At the track's end, she stepped off onto solid ground, her steps shaky. She glanced up and noticed that a monster was approaching.

It was a creature resembling a tiny volcano, with short, stumpy legs keeping it up. Its face was covered in a rosy tint, with closed eyes and a huge, cheery smile.

"Ahh!" it greeted. "I'm Vulkin! Nice to meet you!"

It waddled up to the child, shaking its rump as it walked.

"You're hurt!" Vulkin stated.

It was not wrong, truth be told. Frisk still felt a sting from the laser from Mettaton's quiz show.

"Ah! I'll help! Healing magmas!" the creature exclaimed, a warm liquid boiling over in its crater.

Vulkin's attack began. The sides of the box were filled by columns, with flames being launched from them into the center.

While Frisk guided her soul away from the flames, she nearly didn't notice when the monster inched up to her and tilted its body, preparing to spill lava all over her feet.

She fell backwards and scrambled away at the last second at the sound of a loud hiss, right before the lava came pouring down into the floor.

The child glanced at the ground in panic. A small puddle had formed over the place where she had been standing.

"I'm being helpful!" the monster cheerfully stated.

"Not helping!" Frisk shrieked, swiftly retracting her legs away from the lava. _"Not helping!"_

Vulkin's smile drooped, turning into a dejected frown. "Ahh… not… helping? Okay…"

It turned around and plodded away, its steps heavy with sadness. It began to sulk in the corner and murmur to itself.

It seemed that the child could have just walked away then and there, but she felt awful. It was just trying to help her, after all…

Carefully, she picked herself back up and began to approach the monster, carefully avoiding the lava on the ground, and knelt down next to it.

The child wrapped her arms around the short creature, enveloping it in a hug. It was heartwarming… and entire-body warming, too, as she found out. She recoiled away after a few seconds, unable to stand the heat for very long.

"Ahh… so… _lovey!_ " the Vulkin stated, turning back to the child with glowing cheeks.

Another attack began. A smiling cloud appeared within the box, showering the area below it with lightning bolts.

With the end of that attack, the Vulkin cheerfully crawled onto a nearby conveyor belt and began to zip away, the fight coming to a close.

"Good _byeeeeeeeeeee—_ "

The monster moved off into the distance, its voice becoming more and more distant. Once it was out of sight, Frisk turned around and went on her way, nursing her scorched arms.

* * *

The child's phone made another noise, but she was too distracted by the floor beneath her that she didn't pull it out to see what the issue was.

Unlike the previous one, the conveyor belt ahead didn't proceed in a straight path: it made twists and turns, for a reason that she didn't understand. As before, she stood still on top of it, letting the conveyor belt take her on its cumbersome path.

Once the track came to a stop, Frisk hopped off. To her relief, they seemed to have ended there.

Nearby, neon-blue flames shot out from the nearby machinery, catching her attention for a moment, but she soon tore her eyes from it and pressed on.

The whooshing sound of steam and cogs reached her ears, filling the child with determination. Almost immediately, the stings from her soul faded. Frisk didn't understand how, but she really wasn't going to complain.

She looked over the edge of the platform where she was standing. A bubbling, boiling sea of magma was beneath her.

As the child continued down the path, she found a gap laid out in front of her. It was much too wide to try to jump across, so she had to find another way to get across.

On her side of the gap, a metal tile was embedded in the ground, with slits cut into it. It was marked with an arrow, pointing in the direction over the gap. Short bursts of steam floated out through it.

Curiously, the child knelt down and held her hand over the tile— and was greeted with a sudden high-powered blast of steam. She let out a yelp in surprise, quickly drawing her hand back.

She looked at the gap in front of her, then back to the tile on the floor. Immediately, she had an idea: a rather dangerous idea, but it was worth a shot.

The child walked onto the tile. Positioning herself, she bent her knees at an angle, waiting for the next blast of steam.

To her surprise, the steam vent didn't launch her straight upwards, as she had expected. Rather, the steam came at an angle, launching her right over the gap.

Fortunately, she managed to reach the other side of the gap. Unfortunately, she didn't land on her feet. It hurt a lot.

Frisk picked herself up and glanced around the room, seeing that she would have to repeat this process over and over in order to proceed through the room.

She quickly figured out how the vents worked; they would launch her in the direction where the arrow was pointing when she stood over it. It took a few tries, but she eventually got the hang of the landings as well.

* * *

She entered another room. There was a single steam vent in the center, with conveyer belts located off to the sides.

Something caught her attention; a frying pan sat on the ground nearby to her right, separated by a gap. Using the vent, she launched herself over there.

The child picked it up from the ground and took ahold of it by the handle.

The bottom of the pan was heavily charred. The flat, rounded end was heavy, and if she swung it hard enough, it could really hurt someone. There was no doubt about it: this could definitely be used as a weapon.

Initially, she was going to drop it back on the ground and leave it there, but… something occurred to her.

What if Flowey was right? What if there was someone out there that she wouldn't be able to get away from? What if… fighting was the only option?

It seemed a little large for her backpack, so eventually, she pulled out her phone and accessed her dimensional box. The pan suddenly disappeared out of her hand, a "Burnt Pan" being added to the list of objects in her box.

It would only be a last resort.

* * *

Since that room turned out to be a dead end, Frisk backtracked to the other room.

Soon after arriving, she heard a low, mechanical sputter from behind her. She turned around and noticed that a plane was hovering over the ground.

She had seen pictures of planes, and they seemed to be pretty scary, since they were supposed to be huge. However, this one seemed to be only slightly larger than her, if she had to make an estimate.

A fluffy pink hat sat on top of it, making it considerably less intimidating. To put it simply, it was just _plane_ strange.

"Hey!" came a voice from the plane. "D-don't just stare at me like that!"

Talking flowers, talking rocks… now talking planes, apparently.

"How are you?" the child asked, unable to come up with anything else to say.

"Hmph! The name's Tsunderplane!" the monster stated, as it snobbishly turned up its snout. "Don't get in my way!"

It slowly began to glance back at the child.

"It's not like I like you or anything," it added. "Don't get any ideas!"

Since Tsunderplane was being unfriendly, Frisk thought of something nice to say.

"You have a… um… an impressive wingspan!" she stated, coming up with something from the top of her head.

The monster recoiled away from her. "H-huh?! You sicko!"

In the air, a large battle box appeared. Miniature planes raced through the air, dropping bombs into the space below.

Tsunderplane continued to back away. When the attack ended, Frisk looked to it and saw how far away it was.

"Wait, what's wrong?" the child asked, approaching the monster with a hand held out. She got closer… but not too close, of course.

Tsunderplane started to be flustered. "Eeeeh? H-human…?"

Airplanes flew through the box, but they were surrounded by an outer layer of green. Associating green with good things, Frisk guided her soul to touch them.

While she did so, the monster's blush grew brighter and brighter. By the time the attack had ended, Tsunderplane's cheeks glowed a deep red, its gaze focused on the ground.

"Can we stop fighting?" the child politely asked, since the plane didn't seem to be interested in fighting anymore.

"Human… I… um…" it stuttered, as the box disappeared.

Since the battle had ended, Frisk turned around and walked away. As she did so, Tsunderplane continued to gaze at her from behind.

"They didn't give me a chance to express my feelings…" it muttered, once the child was out of hearing range. "Idiot."

* * *

While Frisk was flung by a tile across the gap, her phone began to ring. When she landed, she reached to her pocket and pulled it out, but whoever was calling had hung up before she could answer.

The child shrugged it off and continued on.

As she followed along the path, she approached a long strip in front of her. A bunch of strange machines were off to the side, emitting blue and orange beams of light to block her path.

Her phone began to ring again. The child let out a sigh of frustration and pulled it out, managing to receive the call this time.

"Uhh! H-hi, so, the blue lasers…" the voice on the other voice began. "Uhh! I mean, Alphys here! Hi!"

"Hello," the child greeted.

Alphys began an explanation. "The blue lasers won't hurt you if you don't move!"

"Like blue attacks," the child reasoned.

"Yeah! E-exactly like those!"

Alphys continued to talk. "B-but o-orange ones, um… y-you have to be moving, and they… um, they won't, um…"

The monster paused for a second.

"Move through those ones!" she blurted.

"Got it," the child stated. "Thanks."

"Uhh, bye!"

The monster promptly hung up.

Frisk was puzzled, since Alphys had been incredibly nervous. Was there something wrong?

Her phone immediately made a sound, alerting her to a notification. She was only reminded about them just then, so she pulled out her phone and took a look.

"OMG I DID IT! claws haven't shook like that since undyne called me to ask about the weather... v.v"

The child noticed that Alphys had been updating her status for a while now. She placed her phone back into her pocket and turned her attention to the lasers in front of her.

The first obstacle in her path was a pair of orange lasers. She quickly dashed forward, passing right through them without being hurt.

As Frisk noticed the blue laser moving back and forth, approaching her then heading away, she was alerted to another notification.

"WAIT THERE'S NO WEATHER DOWN HERE WHY DID SHE CALL ME"

She chuckled a little and turned back to the situation at hand.

The child approached the laser as it headed away from her, then froze as it jolted back around into her direction. She quickly lunged forward once it wasn't touching her anymore.

She repeated this process through the room: dashing through the orange ones, and waiting for the blue ones to pass by before she moved on.

Once there weren't anymore lasers to avoid, Frisk let out a sigh of relief.

At the end of the room was a switch. Once she pressed it, all the lasers behind her powered off.

That was rather convenient.

* * *

As the child headed onwards, her phone sounded yet again.

"oh my god I forgot to tell them where to go"

It was immediately followed by another message.

"ALPHYS posted a picture: CUTE PIC OF ME RIGHT NOW"

The message was accompanied by an image of a garbage can, appearing to be covered with pink, glittery filters.

Frisk didn't understand what it meant. Was it supposed to be symbolic or something…?

She continued to down the path in front of her, observing the giant door off into the distance. At the moment, it seemed to be shut tight. There were more platforms off to the sides, accessible through the vents that were placed around the area.

Her phone rang yet again. As before, Frisk brought it to her ear.

"A-A-Alphys here!" the monster said. "Th... the northern door will stay locked until you… s-solve the puzzles on the right and left!"

More puzzles… they didn't sound too bad.

"I… I think you sh-should g-g-go to the right first!" Alphys stated.

Promptly afterwards, the monster hung up.

She waited for the vent in front of her to turn to the right before stepping onto it.

* * *

Two monsters were sitting along the edge, having a conversation. Although it was rude to eavesdrop, Frisk caught a snippet of their discussion.

"The special effects on Mettaton's show were amazing today!" stated a green, reptilian monster in a business suit. "That human almost looked real!"

The other monster nodded. This one had dark skin, wearing more casual clothing. "It's amazing what technology can accomplish these days."

"Of course, as experienced viewers, we know that it's all just CGI," the green monster added, with a shake of its snout.

The other monster took a sip of its steaming-hot drink. "Mettaton must be really popular now!"

"I bet his fan club probably now has at least two... no, _three_ dozen members!" it continued. "And that's not even counting me!"

And with that, Frisk turned around and went through a nearby entryway.

She found herself in a small room. Directly in front of her was an interface displaying what appeared to be some sort of puzzle.

As she approached the console, she noticed that it contained five buttons. Four of them corresponded with the arrows that were printed on them. The fifth one was a little larger than the others, and was located off to the side.

A piece of paper nearby read: "Shoot the opposing ship! Move the boxes to complete your mission."

At the bottom of the puzzle was a yellow arrow, pointing towards a white arrow at the top. A field of boxes with white outlines sat between them; a few contained a white center in them, while others did not.

As her hand approached the console, two red tick marks appeared at the bottom of the interface.

She began to mess around. She found that the buttons marked with arrows would cause the hollow boxes to shift, moving in the direction marked on the arrow.

Frisk pressed the button to the side. Immediately, a projectile was fired from the yellow arrow, striking a hollow box and removing it from the playing field. She glanced back to the corner of the interface to find that there was only one tick mark left, discovering that they indicated how many shots she had left.

She realized that she would have to remove the boxes from the path between the two arrows in order to not run out of shots.

The child used the arrow buttons to move the block in the way into an alcove to the right. When it was tucked out of the way, she pressed the button and fired, hitting the white arrow at the top of the box.

The arrow snapped in two, leading to a victory jingle and a display that read "Congratulations!".

With that puzzle completed, Frisk left the room and made her way towards the puzzle to the left.

* * *

The setup of the area was similar to that of the last. There was an issue, however: a blue laser stood in the way between her and the puzzle.

She crouched down. It was a tight fit, but it looked like she might have been able to pass underneath it if she crawled on her knees.

Before she could give it a try, however, her phone rang.

"Alphys! Here!" the monster on the other end greeted. "I j-just remembered! One of the puzzles is blocked by a blue laser! D-do you see it?"

The child glanced up to the laser. "Yeah."

"Seems totally impassable, right?" Alphys continued. "B-b-but! As the Royal Scientist, I h-have some tricks up my sleeve! I'll h-hack into th-the Hotland laser database and take it out!"

Immediately afterward, with a sputter, the laser powered off.

"Thanks!" the child said, standing back up.

"Y-you're welcome!"

Alphys quickly hung up.

A few monsters were standing around the entrance of the next puzzle. One was made entirely of green flames, while the other was purple, with a knee placed on a skateboard. Both of them were wearing school uniforms.

"Hey!" the flame monster called out. "Someone turned off that laser! Finally! Now that we're free we can…"

It turned blankly to the other monster. "Well, uh, I guess we'll just keep standing here."

The purple monster shrugged.

"Yeah, it's strange, with these puzzles reactivating out of nowhere…" it stated. "It's a huge problem…"

The monster pumped a fist into the air. "It rules! They've _gotta_ cancel school over this!"

Meanwhile, Frisk headed off into the room containing the puzzle.

It was very similar to the last one, but with a different layout, making it slightly more difficult. With enough mucking around, she managed to fit a majority of the boxes into the alcoves off to the side. When there was only one box in the way, she pressed the fire button twice, breaking the box in the way and the white arrow at the end.

With that puzzle out of the way, Frisk headed back out.

* * *

As the child made her way back to the door, she looked over and saw that it was already beginning to open, albeit rather slowly. Once she arrived, she slipped through the gap and went on through.

It was only after a couple more steps when once again, her phone rang.

"Uuuh, I think… umm…" Alphys started. "Hey! About the puzzles on the left and right…! They're a bit difficult to explain, but…"

She paused for a moment.

"Oh, th-the door's open," she noticed. "Uhhh… you've already s-solved them, right?"

"Yeah."

"Th-that's awesome!"

Once Alphys had hung up, the child stepped onto the vent in her path. She flew through the air— and directly landed onto another vent, launching her back into the air.

After landing onto yet another consecutive steam vent, sending her upwards once again, she crash-landed onto the ground. It was painful.

Letting out a loud wheeze, she managed to get back onto her feet, greatly thankful that she didn't have anything in her stomach to lose. She was very dizzy, but that feeling dissipated after a few seconds. Other than that, she was still in shape to continue on.

So that's what she did.

* * *

As she went on forward, her surroundings began to darken. Eventually, she walked into pitch darkness, not being able to tell what was in front of her.

As her phone rang, it emitted a light source. It wasn't a very helpful light source, however, so the child ended up picking up the call.

Alphys was there. "H-hey, it's kind of dark in there, isn't it?"

The child glanced around. "Yeah."

"Don't worry!" the monster said. "I'll hack into the light system and brighten it up!"

Around the location, the lights flashed on.

Frisk found herself in what appeared to be a kitchen. Well, a majority of the walls were missing, and the ceiling was completely absent, but otherwise it appeared to be a kitchen. It had cabinets, counters, an oven, a refrigerator, even a microwave: basically, everything but the kitchen sink.

Actually, that was just an expression. There was a kitchen sink, too, of course.

Frisk didn't understand what was going on… but Alphys had a suspicion.

"Oh no," the monster said.

Frisk didn't have to wonder for long, however. Soon, Mettaton rolled onstage, a white, puffy toque sitting on top of his rectangular body.

"OHHHH YES!" he shouted, waving to the camera. "WELCOME, BEAUTIES… TO THE UNDERGROUND'S PREMIER COOKING SHOW!"

A huge sign hung down, reading "Cooking With A Killer Robot". After a few seconds of being displayed, it was pulled back up.

"DON'T FORGET TO PREHEAT YOUR OVENS," Mettaton stated, "BECAUSE WE'VE GOT A VERY SPECIAL RECIPE FOR YOU TODAY! WE'RE GOING TO BE MAKING… A CAKE!"

Frisk cocked her head in confusion. For being a "killer robot", Mettaton didn't seem to be very straightforward.

"OUR FIRST STEP IS TO GATHER THE INGREDIENTS!" he continued. "THAT RESPONSIBILITY WILL GO TO OUR LOVELY ASSISTANT HERE!"

He gestured towards the child. "EVERYONE GIVE THEM A BIG HAND!"

A rain of confetti fell into the kitchen over her head, accompanied by the noise of recorded clapping.

Meanwhile, Frisk took a moment to glance back the way she had came and found that it was blocked off by a forcefield.

She let out a huff. There was no escape, wasn't there?

"WE'LL NEED SUGAR, MILK, AND EGGS," Mettaton explained, pointing to the back counter. "GO FOR IT, SWEETHEART!"

Frisk turned to the ingredients on the counter, which were simply sitting there. If she was stuck here, she might as well play along.

"PICK UP THE PACE, DARLING!" the robot stated. "TIME'S A-WASTING!"

The child headed off to the counter. She took each item, one by one, and placed them onto the countertop close to him, until all three items were present.

When she was done, Mettaton gazed down upon the assortment of ingredients.

"PERFECT! GREAT JOB, BEAUTIFUL!"

He dramatically gestured to them. "WE'VE GOT ALL OF THE INGREDIENTS WE NEED TO BAKE THE CAKE! MILK… SUGAR… EGGS…"

Al of a sudden, he raised a finger in the air.

"…OH MY!" he shouted. "WAIT A MAGNIFICENT MOMENT! HOW COULD I FORGET! WE'RE MISSING THE MOST IMPORTANT INGREDIENT!"

The robot turned to Frisk.

"SO, OUR _ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE ASSISTANT…_ WHY DON'T YOU TELL US WHAT WE'RE MISSING?"

"Flour?" the child guessed. She hadn't had much experience with baking, but she was pretty sure that most cakes contained flour.

Mettaton paused for a moment.

"AHH. YES. NEARLY FORGOT ABOUT THAT."

A bag of flour fell from the air, landing right next to the other ingredients.

"BUT THAT IS OUR SECOND MOST IMPORTANT INGREDIENT!" the robot exclaimed. "DARLING, WOULD YOU HAPPEN TO KNOW OUR _SUPER-SECRET, SUPER IMPORTANT_ _INGREDIENT?"_

The child shook her head, not knowing what was in store.

In response, Mettaton waggled a finger at her. "WELL WELL, THAT MEANS YOU'RE IN FOR A SURPRISE!"

A drumroll began to play.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE SECRET INGREDIENT IS…"

Mettaton inched towards a cabinet. He reached into it, and pulled out a giant chainsaw.

" _A HUMAN SOUL!"_

 _Welp._

Frisk was fairly certain that chainsaws didn't belong in kitchens. Then again, her time in the underground had broken her certainty of anything anymore.

Immediately, it whirred to life. As Mettaton inched closer and closer, wielding the chainsaw in his hands, the child found herself frozen in shock, unable to move away.

The chainsaw drew dangerously close. As Frisk was about to scurry away, a ringing noise came from Mettaton, stopping him in his tracks.

Letting out a sigh of irritation, he immediately answered the call. The chainsaw was powered off, but its blade still hung in the air.

"HELLO…? I'M KIND OF IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETHING HERE."

"W-wait a second!" came Alphys's voice. "Couldn't you make a… couldn't you use a…"

"WHAT IS IT, ALPHYS?"

"Couldn't you make a substitution in the recipe!?"

"…A SUBSTITUTION? YOU MEAN, USE A DIFFERENT, _NON-HUMAN_ INGREDIENT?"

"E-exactly!"

Mettaton placed a hand on his side. "HMM… WHY WOULD I DO THAT? I HAVE A PERFECTLY USABLE HUMAN SOUL RIGHT HERE!"

Frisk was not enjoying the prospect of being "perfectly usable".

"Uhh, what if someone's… someone's… errr… vegan?" Alphys suggested.

For a moment, Mettaton was silent.

"…VEGAN," he flatly repeated.

There was a pause. A feeling of dread hung within the air.

Alphys began to speak up. "Uh well I mean—"

"THAT'S A BRILLIANT IDEA, ALPHYS!" Mettaton suddenly exclaimed.

With a loud crash, the chainsaw fell to the floor.

"ACTUALLY, I HAPPEN TO HAVE AN OPTION RIGHT HERE!" he stated.

As the robot went on, a jingle rang through the air. _"MTT-BRAND ALWAYS-CONVENIENT HUMAN-SOUL-FLAVOR-SUBSTITUTE!_ AVAILABLE AT A GROCERY STORE NEAR YOU!"

Dramatically, he pointed in another direction. "A CAN OF WHICH... IS JUST OVER ON THAT COUNTER!"

Huh. Talk about convenience.

Mettaton rolled away from the child, gesturing to the path in front of her.

"WELL, DARLING? WHY DON'T YOU GO GET IT?"

Hesitantly, Frisk stared at the can, assuming that it was sort of trap.

"WHAT'S THE MATTER, BEAUTIFUL?" Mettaton prodded. "NOT A CAN FAN? THAT'S TOO BAD!

"MTT-BRAND USES ONLY THE FRESHEST ARTIFICIAL INGREDIENTS AND CHEMICALS!" he bragged, giving her a little nudge to the side. "DON'T WORRY! IT'S MORE THAN A SUITABLE SUBSTITUTE FOR YOUR SOUL!"

Steadily, the child made her way to the counter. However, as she drew close, it retracted into the ground for a moment… then shot into the air.

When it had come to a stop after a few seconds, the can was now on top of a stack of countless counters, all identical in appearance. The tower stood tall into the sky, looming over her.

Frisk gazed into the air, heart filling with dread.

"BY THE WAY, OUR SHOW RUNS ON A STRICT SCHEDULE," Mettaton explained from behind her. "IF YOU CAN'T GET THE CAN IN THE _NEXT MINUTE…_ WE'LL JUST HAVE TO GO BACK TO THE _ORIGINAL PLAN!"_

Mockingly, he gave the child a wave.

"SO… BETTER START CLIMBING, BEAUTIFUL!"

Immediately, Mettaton rocketed upwards into the air.

Frisk stared at the daunting task in front of her in horror. Even if she possessed the finesse to climb the entire tower, she wouldn't be able to do it in a minute.

An overwhelming sense of despair washed over her. Just when she was about to give up hope, however, her phone rang.

"Oh no!" Alphys exclaimed from the other end. "There's not enough time to climb up! F-f-fortunately, I might have a plan!"

"What is it?" the child asked. At this point, any plan seemed like a good idea.

"When I was upgrading your phone, I added a few… features," Alphys explained. "Go into your applications!"

Promptly, without hanging up, Frisk navigated to her applications.

Alphys continued to explain. "You see that button that says… 'jetpack'? Try pressing it!"

Once the button was pressed, the phone shot out of the child's hands. In a matter of seconds, it grew in size, extra parts appearing out of thin air and affixing themselves to the device.

When it fell back down, Frisk caught a full-sized jetpack in her arms.

"Pretty i-impressive, right?" Alphys spoke up. "A-anyways, you should have just enough fuel to reach the top! Now, let's get up there!"

Swiftly, Frisk dropped her bag onto the floor, replacing it with the jetpack.

"Ready!?" Alphys stated.

The child gazed upward. "Yeah."

In truth, she wasn't, but it didn't seem that she had much of a choice.

"Th-then hold on!"

The jetpack roared to life, an explosion of flame blasting out from beneath it. Quickly, Frisk's feet shot off the ground, marking her ascent into the air.

* * *

As the child headed skyward, Mettaton managed to stay ahead of her.

With a flick of his wrist, eggs began to fall out of the basket in his hands, raining down over the child.

Quickly, Frisk leaned to the left, having figured out how to steer, and barely avoided the falling obstacles.

"OH MY!" Mettaton shouted, pulling out a carton of milk. "IN A TRAGIC TWIST OF FATE, THE INGREDIENTS OF OUR CAKE ARE RAINING FROM THE SKY! WHAT EVER SHALL OUR LOVELY ASSISTANT DO!?"

He emptied the container, dumping its contents right over the child.

Frisk spun out the way to avoid being drenched— and soon flew straight through a cloud of sugar, coating her with the stuff.

She let out a loud groan. It was going to be a long day, wasn't it?

* * *

At last, just as the jetpack was running out of fuel, Frisk reached out for the highest countertop. Once she had a firm grip around the edge, she pulled herself upwards, expending the last of her energy, and took a seat next to the can of human-soul-flavor-substitute.

Mettaton hovered off to the side, placing his hands behind his back. "MY, MY. IT SEEMS YOU'VE BESTED ME."

"BUT ONLY BECAUSE YOU HAD THE HELP OF THE BRILLIANT DOCTOR ALPHYS!" he pointed out. "OH, I LOATHE TO THINK OF WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED TO YOU WITHOUT HER!"

He wasn't wrong, but Frisk didn't dwell over it too much. Anything that didn't get her killed was automatically a good thing.

Mettaton waved goodbye. "WELL, TOODLES!"

He began to fly away, but soon stopped to turn back to the child.

"OH YES! ABOUT THE SUBSTITUTION… HAVEN'T YOU EVER SEEN A COOKING SHOW BEFORE? I ALREADY BAKED THE CAKE AHEAD OF TIME! SO FORGET IT!"

And with that, Mettaton zipped away.

The child continued to take short, hurried breaths, her heart still racing. It took another moment to calm herself down.

Reaching over to the can of human-soul-flavor-substitute, she tried to pick up it up, only to find that it was glued to the counter.

Disregarding that, Frisk took the jetpack off of her back. Without warning, it floated out of her hands and deconstructed itself. When it fell back down, it had become a regular old phone again.

She continued to sit there, grooming herself by wiping away the ingredients that she had flown through.

Her phone began to ring— once again, Alphys was on the other end.

"Wow!" the monster exclaimed. "We… we did it! We… we really did it! Great job out there, team!"

Exhaustedly, Frisk put on a smile. Despite the shower of ingredients, the plan had gone rather smoothly, for the most part.

"W-well, uh, anyway, let's keep heading forward!" Alphys suggested.

As she glanced around her surroundings, Frisk noted something. "Yeah, about that…"

"What is it?"

"I… I can't get back down."

"Oh, right!" Alphys said, suddenly flustered. "Um… I-I'll see what I can do about that! J-just give me a moment!"

Right away, she hung up.

Placing her phone back into her pocket, Frisk cautiously crept to the edge. She peered downwards, searching for any footholds that she could use to climb her way down if the situation called for it—

The tower shuddered all of a sudden, robbing her of her sense of balance. With a yelp, she shot her arms out to her side to keep herself up, but it was too late— she was tipping forward too quickly.

Frisk fell right off the tower, a loud scream escaping from her throat.

Her eyes shut tight, not wanting to witness her plummet towards the ground below. As her heartbeat shot up dramatically, she felt a sole emotion: pure, overwhelming terror.

The child's speed towards the ground quickly accelerated, the air whistling past her. She cried out at the top of her lungs, dreadfully awaiting the certain doom that awaited her.

After a few seconds, however, her fall was stopped rather abruptly. She let out a cry of pain as something struck her in the waist, coiling around it like a snake.

"OOH, NICE SAVE!"

Uh oh.

She struggled in vain to escape Mettaton's grasp until she opened her eyes and noticed how far she was above the ground. The alternative was falling down… not a great alternative.

"WELL, WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT!" the robot exclaimed. "RIGHT ABOUT NOW IS WHEN WE HAVE OUR COMMERCIAL BREAK!"

"UNFORTUNATELY, THAT MEANS NO ONE IS WATCHING THIS RIGHT NOW," he stated, giving the child a poke in the cheek. "SO, "I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU FALL TO YOUR _HORRIFYING, TRAGIC DEATH_ WITHOUT A LIVE TELEVISION AUDIENCE!

Mettaton rose his other hand in the air. "AFTER ALL, THERE'S NO NEED FOR BLOODSHED IF THERE'S NO ONE ELSE TO WITNESS IT! WHERE'S THE ENTERTAINMENT VALUE IN THAT!?"

Clutching onto the child in his arm, Mettaton descended to the ground. Only when her feet were able to touch the ground did he let go of her.

She turned her gaze to the ground, still shivering with fright.

"UNTIL NEXT TIME, BEAUTIFUL!" the robot said with a wave. "TOODLES!"

He shot off into the distance.

Nearby, the tower of counters was rapidly shrinking, until its appearance resembled the sole counter with the can sitting on top of it.

Frisk stood there, terror rendering her unable to move. The only thing that she was able to comprehend was gratitude, that her feet were touching solid ground.

Instinctively, she picked up her phone at the sound of another call.

"S-sorry about that!" Alphys stated. "I-I should have told you not to stand so close to the edge…"

The loud, terrified breathing from the other end reached the monster's ears. She realized that this wasn't really a good time to be calling.

"Oh, I'll just, um—"

She hung up abruptly.

It took another minute or so before Frisk was able to move again. Still trembling, she walked over to pick up her backpack, avoiding the remains of an egg cooking itself on Hotland's scorching floor.

To keep herself going forward, Frisk tried to convince herself that things were going to be alright.

She took one last glance at the kitchen set behind her. It might have been her imagination, but… there was a flash of yellow in the corner of her eye.

Okay, maybe not everything was going to be alright.

Still, she gathered her determination and pressed onwards.

* * *

Looming off in the distance, surrounded by a vast sea of lava, was a massive, ominous structure, illuminated solely by a fiery glow. The exterior was littered with various pipes, sensors, and other complex contraptions, and every so often, it let out a booming mechanical roar.

Frisk was so fascinated by it, that she nearly didn't notice when her phone to ring.

"So!" Alphys began, once the child had picked up. "F-feeling better!?"

The child nodded out of habit. "Yeah."

"That's great!" the monster stated. "Hey, do you s-see that building in the distance?"

"Mm hmm."

"That's the Core, the source of all power for the underground," Alphys explained. "It converts geothermal energy into magical electricity, by… well, it's really complicated and uhh, anyway, that's where we're going to go."

"How are we going to get there?" Frisk asked out of curiosity, staring at the Core. It seemed so distant…

"There's an entrance on Hotland's third floor," Alphys stated. "And in the Core, there's an elevator directly to Asgore's castle. From there... you can go home."

Home… wherever that was, it seemed inviting. More inviting than what she was going through right now, that is.

"But for now… you have to go through the elevator over there," Alphys continued. "Do you see it?"

Frisk tore her eyes away from the Core and to a glowing structure to her right. "I think so."

"Once you're inside, you should see a bunch of buttons… y-you'll want to go to Right Floor 2."

"Got it," the child said. "Thanks, Alphys."

"Y-you're welcome!"

And with that, the monster hung up. Frisk turned back to the Core for another glance, still finding it intriguing.

"Impressive, isn't it?" came a voice from nearby.

The child jolted around to the sudden newcomer: a wide-eyed, humanoid monster with a blank expression on its face. Its entire body was a dull, lifeless grey. It merely stood there, staring out at the Core.

"It makes sense why Asgore took so long to hire a new Royal Scientist," the monster stated, its mouth opening and closing rigidly to make out the words. "After all, the old one… Doctor W. D. Gaster. What an act to follow!"

It continued to stand there in a strange manner: unblinking, unmoving, merely observing. Frisk couldn't help but listen to what it had to say, but was unable to muster the courage to respond to it.

"They say he created the Core," the monster went on. "Yes, the very one that looms over there. However, his life… it was cut short."

"Wh-what happened?" Frisk dared to ask.

The monster continued, but in such as distant way: like the child wasn't even there. "One day, he fell into his creation, and…"

It paused for a moment.

"Well. That's a story for another day, I suppose."

At the sound of a loud roar, Frisk gazed back to the Core, tearing her eyes away from the mysterious figure.

"I wonder… the new Royal Scientist, Dr. Alphys… will she end up the same way?" the monster pondered.

"I certainly hope not," Frisk began, looking back over her shoulder—

But there was nobody there.

* * *

The child spent a few seconds wondering what had just happened. Eventually though, she decided to head over to the elevator.

The door of the structure was shut tight, but upon the touch of a button, it opened by itself. Frisk ventured inside.

A panel sat on the wall. It contained six lights, with buttons corresponding to them, but only two were on at the moment; they were marked with L1 and R2 respectively.

She located and hit the button marked "R2".

At the sound of a slam behind her, the child spun around to find that the door had shut tight. In response, she nervously backed up against a wall, since she would be unable to escape what awaited her.

Then, beneath her, the ground began to shake. To Frisk, who had never ridden an elevator before, it felt like the apocalypse was on the verge of arriving. Furthermore, the motion made her feel sick, like her innards were about to explode.

Fully nauseated, she took a seat, huddling in the corner, waiting for the elevator to come to a stop.

The elevator ride continued on for what seemed like an eternity.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at Snowdin…

"HMM… SO PEOPLE USE THESE ELEVATORS TO GET AROUND HOTLAND?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"SOUNDS INCONVENIENT. CAN'T THEY JUST TAKE A BUS OR SOMETHING?"

Papyrus and Undyne were staring at a diagram that they had found on the internet: a rough map of Hotland.

The skeleton pointed to the bottom-right end of the diagram.

"THIS ELEVATOR SAYS R1," he stated. "BUT WHAT DOES THE R STAND FOR?"

Undyne put on a grin. "C'mon, Papyrus. Think about it."

"HMMM…"

"It stands for red, 'cause that's the color of the lights over there!"

"I GUESS THAT MAKES SENSE!"

However, Papyrus quickly noticed that something wasn't quite adding up.

"WAIT, UNDYNE," he added. "IF THE R STANDS FOR RED... WHAT COLOR DOES THE L STAND FOR?"

Undyne placed her hand on her chin. "Uhhhh… light green."

"OH! OF COURSE! WAIT. ISN'T THAT TWO WORDS?"

"Yeah, you're right…"

Undyne thought for a second.

"Okay, okay, I've got it," she stated. "The L stands for the color "lime."

Papyrus let out a groan. "REALLY!? I HATE LIMES."

"What!?" Undyne exclaimed. "Limes rule! I eat them whole all the time! What's wrong with limes!?"

"WELL, ONE TIME I WAS GIVING MYSELF THE SPA TREATMENT," the skeleton explained. "I PUT THE LIME SLICES IN MY EYES, LIKE ON TV. BUT IT STINGS! HOW DO THEY DO IT!?"

"Oh my god!" Undyne shouted. "Those aren't _limes!_ Those are _cucumbers!"_

Papyrus put on a frown. "OH. THAT EXPLAINS A LOT. I THOUGHT IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE REJUVENATING, BUT IT WASN'T WORKING! SO I JUST STUCK MORE LIMES INTO MY EYES."

Undyne's face scrunched up. "Gross! Why did you even do that!?"

"I JUST WANT TO HAVE HANDSOME, BISHONEN EYES… LIKE METTATON…" Papyrus explained, letting out a long sigh.

"He doesn't even have eyes!" Undyne muttered to herself.

Meanwhile, Papyrus stared back at the screen, continuing to ponder the meaning of the mysterious L.

"MAYBE WE NEED TO THINK MORE ABSTRACTLY," he stated. "MAYBE THE L STANDS FOR… LOVE."

"But isn't love supposed to be fiery red!?" Undyne protested. "Like a cartoony human-heart?"

Papyrus turned to her. "BUT UNDYNE, DON'T YOU TURN PEOPLE'S HEARTS GREEN?"

She crossed her arms. "You make it sound like I give people nausea."

"WELL, IT WOULD BE AN AFFECTIONATE NAUSEA," the skeleton reasoned.

Undyne let out a laugh. "Okay, yeah! That's me!"

"IT'S DECIDED, THEN!" Papyrus announced. "L STANDS FOR… A HEART THAT UNDYNE HAS MADE NAUSEOUS?"

The skeleton shook his head. "NO NO, THAT CAN'T BE RIGHT."

He paused for a moment, having come to a realization.

"WAIT. WHAT IF R AND L. STAND FOR RIGHT AND LEFT?"

"No way!" Undyne exclaimed. "That doesn't make any sense. If you face the opposite way, they'd be wrong!"

"BUT IF YOU FACE THE OTHER WAY... HOW CAN YOU KNOW THEY ARE REALLY STILL WRONG?"

"Let's not get philosophical over the alphabet."

Papyrus grumbled. There were many possibilities, but it seemed that none of them were right.

"MAYBE THESE Rs AND Ls DON'T STAND FOR ANYTHING, AFTER ALL."

* * *

 **AN:**

 **This ended up being a little longer than I had anticipated.**

 **Despite that, there's not really much to say about this chapter, really. Not much that I choose to say, to be more precise.**

 **Oh, by the way: I'm pretty sure no one will mind if I skip a few rooms of Hotland in later chapters, right? I mean, puzzles are pretty boring.**

 **Next time: things get a little more interesting. Hee hee hee.**


	18. Death Report

When the elevator door finally opened, Frisk eventually stumbled out, gasping for air. It didn't take her long to recover from the effects of her elevator ride, though.

Nearby, a short monster made entirely of flames stood off to the side.

"Hey there!" it greeted. "I'm Heats Flamesman. Remember my name!"

Frisk nodded, not entirely paying attention to the monster. "Okay."

"Thanks, man!"

Heats Flamesman entered the elevator behind her. Soon afterwards, the door closed, as the elevator took the monster to another floor.

The child glanced back. What was that monster's name again?

* * *

Ahead of her, a sentry station was situated, standing along the edge of the stone platform. Inside of it, Sans sat.

The skeleton was in the middle of applying mustard onto a hot dog, while Vulkin watched on in delight. Once it was fully applied, he leaned forward and placed the hot dog right on top of Vulkin's crater, precariously balanced over the lava below.

"here you go, pal."

Vulkin put on a huge smile. As it turned around walked away, the hot dog shifted and fell into the monster's crater, where it was incinerated with a loud hiss.

"Toasty bun!" Vulkin exclaimed.

Sans looked back up and noticed that the human was nearby.

"hey frisk," he greeted. "what's up?"

Frisk waved hello, approaching the sentry station with a smile on her face.

"i'm supposed to be working right now, but… my sentry job gets a little boring sometimes, so i've set up a hot dog stand at my station," Sans explained.

He shrugged. "i'm practically a hot-dog tycoon now."

The skeleton rested his arms on the counter. Even in the arid environment of Hotland, he didn't bother to change what he wore from Snowdin. Must have been too lazy to change it.

"so, is there anything you wanna talk about while you're here?" he asked. "i mean, business here's slow. i can spare some time for a chat."

Frisk turned to the ground, placing her hand on her chin. There was a lot on her mind that she wanted to share.

"hmm… that expression…" Sans noted. "we're going to be here for a while, huh?"

He stood up. "here, i'll grab a seat for you real quick. in the meantime… why don't you check out what's behind you?"

"Behind me…?" she repeated, looking over her shoulder. There wasn't anything of note, besides the platform she stood on and the void below.

She turned back to face Sans, only to discover that he was no longer sitting there.

The child glanced around, looking for him. However, he wasn't anywhere nearby.

"Sans?" she called out.

She continued to search the surrounding area, raising her voice. "Sans!?"

"hey, who are you looking for?" came a voice from behind her. "i'm right here."

Frisk spun around so quickly, she nearly lost her balance. She stumbled a little, making little effort to hide her shock, before managing to restabilize herself.

"Wh-where'd you go?"

"sorry about that," the skeleton replied, holding a cardboard box in his hands. "had to go fetch this."

He plopped it on the ground in front of his sentry station. "here, take a seat."

Hesitantly, the child sat on the box, testing that the box would support her before placing her entire weight on top of it.

"by the way, wanna buy a hot dog?" Sans offered. "it's only 30G."

After some thought, the child shook her head. She was on an empty stomach, but the elevator had ruined her appetite, anyways.

Fortunately, Sans seemed to understand.

"yeah, you've gotta save your money for… college, or spiders, or something," he stated.

He reached for something underneath is station. "but it seems like you've had a rough day, so you can have one anyways. it's on the house."

When he rose again, he was empty-handed.

"well, no. it's on you."

The child lifted her head slightly, coming to a realization: there was something… on top of her head.

With a cry of surprise, she reached up to it, finding that a hot dog had been placed there… somehow.

Sans merely snickered at the sight.

"there's your 'dog." he stated. "yeah. 'dog. apostrophe-dog. it's short for hot-dog."

Holding the hot dog in her hands, she took a closer look at it: the "meat" wasn't really meat. it was actually the brown, thick part of a water sausage.

Judging from looks, it probably wasn't very edible.

"Uhh… thanks," Frisk said, depositing the hot dog into her bag.

She would find some use for it, eventually. Maybe.

"so, you had something to tell me," Sans began, getting right to the point. "what is it?"

The child looked down into her lap, the memories of what had happened coming back to her.

"I saw that flower again."

"the one that tried to kill you?" the skeleton asked.

Frisk nodded. "Mm hmm."

"so, what happened? did it try to kill you again?"

"Well, no…" she replied, trying to recall Flowey's exact words. "It said that… killing me would be pointless, or something like that?"

Since Sans didn't reply so quickly, the child glanced back up to see that he was concentrating for a moment: maybe considering something, perhaps?

"well, that's interesting," he eventually stated. "did it say anything to you?"

Nervously, she glanced downward, affixed with fiddling with her fingers. She became aware of something dreadful: the reason that she was able to hurt Undyne as she did…

When she mustered the courage to speak, the words came out with a stutter, like a young child confessing a wrongdoing. "It told me… it told me how to…"

Frisk paused, taking a sharp breath.

"It told me how to fight back," she continued. "So I could… um, kill Undyne."

Sans began to slouch a little less. This… this was interesting.

"of course, she's still alive, right?" he asked, leaning forwards a little.

"Yeah."

"so why the face?" the skeleton asked. "i mean, undyne isn't very friendly with humans, being the captain of the royal guard and all that. if you did kill her…"

He looked away for a moment. "well. to be honest, i wouldn't judge you too harshly for that."

Frisk stared down at her shoes for a long while, wracked with guilt.

"The thing is… I… I hurt her," she stated softly. "When she was knocked down, I realized that I was hurting someone. So I stopped."

Sans nodded. "i see."

"well, let me ask you something," he said, after a short pause. "when you hit undyne… did you intend to kill her?"

"Well, no, I… "

The child mulled it over for a while.

"Maybe?" she said, unsure of herself. "I mean, I don't know… but I don't think so…"

It had happened so quickly, so the details were hard to recall. All that she knew that during her fight with Undyne… she was afraid. Deathly afraid.

"well, it probably doesn't matter," Sans reasoned. "all that matters is that in the end… you didn't end up killing her."

Frisk's expression tensed up with worry.

"But I could have!" she exclaimed.

"but you didn't," Sans stated. "because you stopped yourself."

"Yeah, that is true…"

Sans looked directly at the child, making eye contact.

"ultimately, it's your choice whether you hurt anyone or not, even if that flower tells you otherwise," he stated.

For a moment, Frisk considered that. It seemed to make sense: after all, it was up to her to find another way to end a fight.

"besides, you haven't killed anyone else, right?"

"Mm hmm."

"let's see how long we can keep that up," Sans noted. "after all… there is something… hmm. never mind, actually."

He decided to change the subject. "i guess i have something to tell you too."

"you should have seen my brother's face when i brought you back to our house," he said, pupils shifting downwards. "i think he was even crying for a moment when he saw you, all messed up like that… although, knowing him, he won't admit to it."

The edges of his grin curled a little. He sounded… kind of happy…

"i haven't seen him this overjoyed about something for a long time. so i just wanted to say thanks. thanks for playing along."

Frisk put on a grin. "Don't mention it."

They both stared off in the distance for a while, spending time in contentment.

"well," Sans eventually concluded. "is that it?"

"Oh, right…" the child responded, recalling something. "Thank you for helping me back there."

"heh, you're welcome. i was just looking out for you— it's what friends do.

"although…" he began to add, "next time, try not to fall asleep in random places. only i'm qualified to do that."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Frisk moved to stand back up— and immediately, the tall stack of water sausages on her head toppled over. They spilled everywhere: some landed on the box, some landed on the ground, some landed on the child.

Seeing the mess around her, she turned back to Sans with disbelief, receiving a mere wink in response. She let out a giggle… which quickly escalated into full-blown laughter.

"twenty-nine," Sans commented, being amused by this. "that's a new record. to be _frank_ with you, however… thirty seems to be a bit excessive. i don't think my arms can reach that high."

As she began to take a few steps away, the skeleton waved goodbye.

"well, see ya. don't forget to keep an eye out, alright?"

Frisk waved back, still chuckling. "I will. See ya too!"

* * *

Heading on forward, the child found herself on a narrow path. She did not travel very far before a monster bounded into her way, however.

" _Man, is it chilly in here!"_ it shouted.

A long, thick rope was tied around the monster, not burning up despite the monster's fiery exterior. Its head was constantly bathed in flames, and all that she was able to make out on its face was a wide, mischievous smile.

"I'm Pyrope!" the monster greeted. "Wanna hang out!?"

"... Sure," Frisk said rather hesitantly.

The monster's grin grew even wider.

" _PSYYYYYYCHE!"_ it shouted. "Sorry, I'm all _tied up!"_

A box appeared. Bombs appeared and began to bounce around the inside, eventually making a huge explosion after a few seconds. Her soul got caught in one, unfortunately.

Once the attack had ended, Pyrope glared down at her. "Ha ha ha. Hey, while you're here, can you do me a little favor?"

The child nodded. She didn't see why not.

In response, the monster turned away to the side. "See that lever over there!?"

Frisk looked over to where Pyrope was facing. Connected to a piece of machinery was a sole lever, about the length of her forearm. At the moment, it was positioned upwards, and it looked like it could be pulled down.

"It's connected to a thermostat that regulates how air-conditioned this area is," the monster explained. "So if you lower the air-conditioning, _things really start to heat up!_ Ha ha!"

Pyrope turned back to her. "Now, I'd turn up the heat myself, but… well, you know. All tied up! Ha ha ha."

Deciding to do this monster a favor, Frisk approached the lever. Placing a firm grip on it with both of her hands, she yanked downwards with all of her might. At first, it didn't budge… but slowly, it began to give way.

Behind her, Pyrope burst into loud, maniacal laughter.

" _Hot! HOT!"_ it shouted. _"Hotter! HOTTER!"_

Kicking her feet up into the air, the child placed her entire weight onto the lever. She managed to crank up the heat even further.

Eventually, she slipped and fell off, landing on her back. By then, the air surrounding the area was sweltering: so much that it was hard to breathe.

The monster began to rapidly hop up and down. "Thanks! You're a real pal!"

With huge leaps, Pyrope sprang around, constantly howling with laughter.

The child got up and left, since it was clear that it didn't want to fight anymore.

* * *

Frisk wiped her brow, wearing a frown on her face. The back of her shirt was soaked with sweat, and the heat was still very uncomfortable, although it seemed to lessen the farther away she headed.

Her phone made a noise.

"ALPHYS posted a picture. dinner with the girlfriend ;)"

In the picture stood a figurine of a teenage girl, although there were some glaring discrepancies in its anatomy: not only were some of the proportions off, but it had a pair of cat ears on its head. It was joined by a bowl of what appeared to be noodles in some sort of broth.

Frisk wasn't really sure why she was even looking at her phone anymore. It was… amusing, to some extent?

Before she was able to put her phone away, another notification appeared.

"CoolSkeleton95 posted a picture.  
ARE WE POSTING HOT "PICS?" HERE IS ME AND MY COOL FRIEND"

Beneath the message was a picture of Papyrus flexing in front of a mirror, a pair of sunglasses in front of his eyes. Giant muscular biceps were pasted onto his arms… which were also wearing sunglasses.

It was followed up by yet another notification.

"ALPHYS updated status.  
LOL, CoolSkeleton95! ... that's a joke, right?"

"CoolSkeleton95 updated status.  
THE ONLY JOKE HERE, IS HOW STRONG MY MUSCLES ARE."

A few seconds passed. Before another notification appeared, that was.

"NAPSTABLOOK22 has sent you a friend request. Accept the request?"

Before Frisk could press the accept button, as she liked the prospect of being friends with Blooky, the prompt disappeared. It turned out that the friend request had already rejected itself.

Oh well. This internet stuff didn't really matter to her anyways.

Once the child put her phone away, she looked to her feet. While she had been aimlessly strolling forwards while looking at her phone, she had stepped on something on the ground.

She crouched down, removing her foot from it in the process, and observed the item. It was pink with a reddish tinge, and it seemed to be something made out of fabric.

Using the tips of her fingers to pick it up, since it was hot from sitting on the floor for… who knows how long, the child held it out in front of her. She quickly figured out that she was holding the object upside-down, and shifted it upright to identify it.

She had never seen an apron in person before, but she had seen pictures and illustrations to recognize what it was.

There wasn't anyone nearby, and the way that it sat on the ground didn't suggest that anyone had owned it, so Frisk decided to keep it. She held it up to herself, comparing to see if it would fit her.

She noticed that something got in the way: the tutu she was wearing.

Something funny occurred to her. She had been running around Waterfall, fought and befriended the captain of the Royal Guard, even appeared on TV of all things… with a pink, frilly skirt around her waist.

Frisk chuckled to herself. This was one of those moments when her journey felt like one huge joke. Or rather, multiple jokes strung together semi-coherently. Yeah. That was it.

Using her phone, the tutu was sent to her dimensional box. With that out of the way, Frisk placed on the apron, managing to tie the strings around her back.

Wearing the apron made her feel a little better. Not only did it feel protective, much like the tutu that preceded it, but it filled her with a feeling that was hard to describe: a little calming, a little reassuring, perhaps. The ache that had been bothering her since the encounter with Pyrope… slowly, it began to fade away.

Basically, it was pretty nifty.

She cracked a smile and headed onward.

* * *

Ahead of her, Frisk came upon a pair of conveyor belts.

Off to the side was a piece of paper. She approached it and knelt down, taking a look at what was printed onto it.

Just when she finished reading it, her phone began to ring.

"H… hi…!" the voice on the other end began. "It's Dr. Alphys. This p-puzzle is kinda… um… timing-based. Y-you see those switches over there?"

The child spoke up. "Alphys—"

"Y-you'll have to press all three of them within 3 seconds," Alphys continued, interrupting her. "Sounds easy, r-right? I'll t-try to help you with the rhythm!"

"There's a note here," Frisk stated. "It says… the puzzle is out of service."

"Oh."

Alphys paused for a moment.

"Um… well, th-that's convenient."

Immediately afterwards, the monster hung up.

SInce there wasn't a puzzle to complete here, Frisk simply stepped onto the conveyor belt and passed through.

* * *

Another puzzle awaited her. There were small platforms, each with a few steam vents on top of it. Furthermore, some of the vents were connected to switches on the ground. To put it simply, it looked super-complicated and not fun at all.

Before she could give it a shot, however, her phone received a notification.

"ALPHYS updated status.  
mfw when i find out both the puzzles on the second floor are malfunctioning"

It was immediately followed by another status update.

"gdi"

The child frowned. Was that an actual word? Maybe it was an acronym for something, but… for what?

She observed the surrounding area. A conveyor belt snaked around the side of the field of vents, but it didn't seem to be moving right now.

A note sat over on the ground. What it said was similar to the message from the previous room: the puzzle wasn't functioning properly.

Frisk stepped onto the conveyor belt, but it didn't move. Taking this to mean that it was safe, she began to follow the path to the other side. She walked with unsteadiness, as if the conveyor belt might suddenly turn on while she treaded over it.

Thankfully, it did not. As the child's feet left the conveyor belt, it remained in need of repair.

While she wasn't complaining that the puzzle wasn't functioning properly, she couldn't help but have this feeling in the back of her head.

 _Someone was cutting corners._

* * *

Ahead of her, the path continued on forward. Nearby, an electronic safe containing a piece of cheese sat on a table, protecting its contents from… something. Mice, probably.

As she passed by it, her phone received a notification.

"ALPHYS updated status."

"OMG? ppl think Mew Mew 2 is better than Mew Mew 1? LOLLLLL that's a joke right…"

Not having idea what Mew Mew 2 was, much less the first Mew Mew, Frisk was understandbly confused by this.

As she looked back up and walked on forth,another notification popped up.

"omg... DONT THEY GET IT RUINS MEW MEW'S ENTIRE CHARACTER ARC"

It still didn't explain anything.

"My Mew Mew 2 Review: Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2 Is Neither Kissy Nor Cutie. Its Trash. 0 stars"

Just when the child looked up from reading this, a voice rang out.

"Hey! You! Stop!"

Loud, jangly clanging noises rang through the air, coming from directly behind her. Frisk's progress came to a halt, as she quickly spun around to identify the source.

A pair of huge monsters approached her, wearing pitch-black armor. They looked identical, bar their helmets: one had a pair of rabbit ears, while the other's ears were jagged and stuck out to the side. The long, sharp blades they wielded certainly added to their menacing appearance.

The child recalled seeing them before: they were the ones blocking the path over by Alphys's lab.

"We're members of the Royal Guard," one of the monsters introduced: the one with the rabbit ears. "We've, like, received an anonymous tip about a human wearing a striped shirt."

They didn't seem to recognize her immediately. She wondered how long that would last…

"They told us they were wandering around Hotland right now…" the monster continued, the other one merely continuing to stare down at her. "I know, sounds scary, huh?"

"Yeah," the child stated, deciding to play stupid for the time being. "Good luck with that."

"Like, it's not safe out here!" said the rabbit-eared guardsman. "Our leader, Undyne… she says that humans are dangerous and stuff!"

He turned to his partner. "Didn't she say something the other day about them being able to control people's minds!?"

The other monster merely nodded in response.

"So like, it's totally not safe, being out here by yourself," the first guardsman stated, turning back to Frisk. "Well, just stay chill. Come along, we'll bring you someplace safe."

The monsters turned around and began to march off in the other direction. Frisk stood still, wondering what to do. If she bolted away now, they would definitely be able to identify her as a human, but… how fast could they chase her, underneath all that armor?

Before she could decide what to do, the royal guardsmen suddenly stopped in their tracks.

"…Huh? What is it, bro?" the talkative one said, turning to his partner.

The other monster said something, but since it was said so quietly, it was hard to make out.

"The shirt they're wearing… underneath that apron?" the rabbit-eared monster repeated. "…like, what about it?"

They both turned back to the child.

"Like, sorry to bother you, but… can you turn around for a second?"

 _Welp._

Frisk stared at them for a moment before summoning the courage to comply: she spun around as quickly as possible, making herself a little dizzy in the process. She wobbled around for a second, hoping that they didn't recognize the stripes on her shirt.

However, the way they were looking at each other suggested that they had managed to see enough.

"Bro… are you thinkin… what I'm thinkin?" the rabbit-eared monster asked.

The other monster nodded rather solemnly. The two of them both turned back to the child, their postures becoming more rigid.

"Bummer," the rabbit-eared guardsman commented apologetically. "This is, like… mega embarrassing."

The monsters raised their blades.

"We, like, actually totally have to kill you and stuff."

Immediately, something occurred to the child: now might be a good time to run away. So, that was exactly what she did.

With an abrupt dash, Frisk took off in the other direction, feet flying into action.

"Hey! Like, come back here!" she heard from behind her.

However, the coming-back would not happen anytime soon. It wasn't long before the monsters snapped to their sense and began to give chase.

While Frisk turned around the bend, she took a glance behind her.

For having all that armor on… those monsters sure could run fast. Running didn't seem like such a great idea anymore, not that there was much that she could do about it now.

She pushed harder, despite the odds: maybe there was a place where she could hide up ahead.

Fortunately, it turned out that she didn't need to worry: the clanging behind her came to a stop, all of a sudden. She looked back for mere seconds, seeing that one of them had gotten tired. The other one stood next to him, finding out what was wrong.

Taking the opportunity, Frisk rushed ahead, leaving the guardsmen far behind.

* * *

"…getting… warmer…"

The less-talkative guardsman began to slouch forward, placing his hands on his knees.

"02, what's wrong?" the rabbit-eared guardsman asked.

"I… can't… take it…" 02 mumbled. "Armor… too… hot!"

Swiftly, his chestplate was removed. It fell to the floor with a loud crash.

"…much better," he stated, his scaly chest fully bared.

He looked out into the distance, trying to find the human. However, after a few seconds of futility, it seemed that they were gone.

02 looked to his partner… who was sweating profusely. His armor was much less stuffy, so he shouldn't have… unless there was another reason, of course.

"What's the issue, 01?" 02 asked.

01 shook his head. "D-dude … I can't …"

"…What is it?"

"I can't take this anymore!" 01 shouted, suddenly. "Not like this!"

He turned to his partner, a confession bursting forth like water gushing through a burst dam.

"Like, 02! I like… I like, _like_ you, bro! The way you fight… the way you talk…"

"I love doing team attacks with you," he continued. "I love standing in battle with you, bouncing and waving our weapons in sync… 02… I, like, want to stay like this forever…"

02 did not make a sound. This led to them staring at each other for a very long time… and it was every bit as awkward as you would think it would be.

Eventually though, 01 broke the silence. 'Uh… I mean, uh…

He began to laugh nervously.

"Whew, bro!" he joked, speaking swiftly. "That human did some weird stuff to me or something! They put me, uh, under mind control! What was I just saying? It's all a blur, dude—"

02 interrupted him. "…01."

"Y-yeah, bro?"

"…Do you want to… get some ice cream?"

It didn't take long for 01 to consider the offer.

"Like… sure, dude! Haha!"

He took a quick glance into the distance. "After we… oh. Right. The human."

"…It doesn't matter," 02 spoke up. "They're probably long gone now…"

"So, like, would now be a good time?" 01 offered.

02 nodded. "Sure."

He went to pick his chestplate from the floor.

And together, the two of them headed off to the nearest ice-cream vendor.

* * *

Frisk ended up… somewhere. She couldn't make anything out, since it was so dark.

Convinced that she had finally lost the two of them, the child came to a stop. She took a seat on the floor, her energy expended by the chase.

Her lungs were burning. She gulped down mouthful after mouthful of torrid air, gradually bringing them relief.

Her phone made a noise.

"ALPHYS updated status.

oopswait how's the humnan doing"

"Top 10 Shows That Make You Forget To Do Your Frickin Job"

Soon afterwards, the child's phone rang.

"Okay, I'm back!" Alphys greeted. "Hey, uhh… wh-where are you?"

"It's dark," Frisk stated. "I can't see anything."

"A-another dark room, huh? Don't worry! M-my hacking skills have got things covered!"

Around the room, lights shot on, revealing that the room was huge in size. In front of her, various items were scattered across the floor.

"Are you serious?" Alphys muttered.

Frisk observed the scenery. Apart from the items scattered about, the room seemed rather empty.

"What is it, Alphys—"

She was interrupted by a voice booming from above.

" _OHHHHHH YESSS!"_

Oh.

"GOOD EVENING, BEAUTIES AND GENTLEBEAUTIES!" the voice announced. "THIS IS METTATON, REPORTING LIVE FROM MTT NEWS!"

Frisk searched around for him, but there was no Mettaton in sight.

"AS YOU CAN SEE HERE, AN INTERESTING SITUATION HAS ARISEN IN EASTERN HOTLAND!" the robot continued. "FORTUNATELY, OUR CORRESPONDENT IS OUT THERE ON THE SCENE, REPORTING LIVE!"

It took a second for Frisk to realize that _she_ was the correspondent. She didn't really want to be shoved into the role, but… the laser blocking the way from where she came didn't really give her much of a choice.

"BRAVE CORRESPONDENT!" Mettaton shouted. "PLEASE FIND SOMETHING NEWSWORTHY TO REPORT! OUR TEN WONDERFUL VIEWERS ARE WAITING FOR YOU!"

With the end of that, the child headed straight forward, walking into the field of assorted objects.

She took a closer look at them. Among the items included a basketball… a small, white dog (it brought back terrible memories)… and a glass of water. Back on the surface, she had watched snippets of the news… so she didn't really understand what made these things so newsworthy.

She drew closer to a book sitting on the floor. There wasn't anything on the cover, so Frisk knelt down to get a closer look.

"OOH LA LA!" Mettaton suddenly boomed, catching the child off-guard. "THAT WORK OF FICTION YOU FOUND... IS DYNAMITE! THOUGH I DON'T MAKE AN APPEARANCE IN IT UNTIL… OH, ABOUT HALFWAY IN OR SO."

"BUT I LIKE THAT," he added. "APPEARING FROM THE HEAVENS LIKE MANNA, SLAKING THE HUNGER FOR GORGEOUS ROBOTS OF AVID READERS AND REVIEWERS ALIKE… OOH! THAT'S METTATON!

He continued speaking. "ANYWAYS, YOU SURELY DON'T WANT TO REPORT THAT ONE! THERE'S SPOILERS IN THERE! YOU DON'T WANT THOSE, DO YOU?"

Frisk stood back up. "I guess not."

"AH, SO YOU UNDERSTAND," Mettaton stated in response. "AFTER ALL, IN THIS WORLD… IT'S ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA TO CHECK EVERYTHING TWICE!"

As Frisk took another scan of the objects, something caught her eye: a white box, with a red ribbon around it. She approached it, urged by a simplistic sense of curiosity.

"OH MY!" the robot exclaimed. "IT'S A PRESENT! AND IT'S ADDRESSED TO YOU, DARLING! AREN'T YOU JUST BURSTING WITH EXCITEMENT?"

Even the slightest glance at her facial expression spoke volumes: she wasn't excited for this at all.

"OOH! WHAT COULD BE INSIDE? WELL, NO TIME LIKE THE "PRESENT" TO FIND OUT!"

A laugh track played.

"WAIT A MINUTE, THIS ISN'T THE RIGHT SHOW…" Mettaton muttered. "OH WELL, LET'S ROLL WITH IT."

He continued, upbeat as usual.

"ATTENTION, VIEWERS! OUR CORRESPONDENT HAS FOUND... A PRESENT! AND IT'S TIME FOR THE UNBOXING VIDEO! LET'S FIND OUT WHAT'S INSIDE!"

The child stared down at the box, expecting something to happen.

"GO ON, BEAUTIFUL! GO AHEAD AND OPEN IT! DON'T LEAVE US ALL IN SUSPENSE!"

She couldn't recall the last time she had given a gift in a box, or if at all, so she should have been excited to open it. But given the circumstances… she wasn't excited at all. Mostly perplexed.

The ribbon was undone easily enough. However as she managed to get the box open… a loud hiss came from its contents.

Her hands darted away. She had noticed sparks coming from inside the box— something was set alit.

"THAT ROUND, BLACK SHAPE… COULD IT BE? LOOKS LIKE CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY THIS YEAR. IF SANTA GAVE PEOPLE BOMBS INSTEAD OF PRESENTS!"

"Bombs!?" Frisk repeated, backing away from the present.

"REALLY THOUGH," Mettaton commented, rather deadpan. "A BOMB. WHAT A THOUGHTFUL GIFT. THE GIFTER EVEN DECIDED TO LIGHT IT FOR YOU!"

The child didn't find it very thoughtful. If she were to give a gift, she would have given anything else _but_ a bomb.

"BUT DON'T GET TOO EXCITED! YOU HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN THE REST OF THE ROOM YET!"

Off in the distance, a wall collapsed, revealing Mettaton behind it. He was dressed for the occasion in stylish red business attire: rather impressive, for a rectangular box.

"OH MY!" he exclaimed, descending into the scene. "IN A STRANGE TURN OF EVENTS… COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT OF MY OWN DOING, OF COURSE… IT SEEMS _EVERYTHING_ IN THIS AREA IS ACTUALLY A BOMB!"

Frisk glanced around and saw that indeed, everything was a bomb. All the items, bar the glass of water, now revealed a fuse of some sort attached to them. And she was pretty sure that the glass of water wasn't safe: not if it was flashing like that.

"BRAVE CORRESPONDENT... IF YOU DON'T DEFUSE ALL OF THE BOMBS…"

He gestured over to a large, round object off to the side.

"THIS BIG BOMB WILL BLOW YOU TO SMITHEREENS IN TWO MINUTES!" Mettaton explained. "THEN YOU WON'T BE REPORTING _"LIVE"_ ANY LONGER!"

Frisk looked over to the large bomb in concern. This was a problem, mostly because she had no idea how to defuse a bomb in the first place.

"OH, _HOW TERRIBLE!"_ Mettaton dramatically lamented. _"HOW DISTURBING!"_

He turned to the child. "OUR NINE VIEWERS ARE GOING TO LOVE WATCHING THIS! GOOD LUCK, DARLING!"

Mettaton shot off into the distance, presumably so that he wouldn't get blown up too.

Most of the items had inexplicably moved, now scattered around the room. While a few of them were sitting around, the others were moving at high speeds on their own…somehow.

Before Frisk could decide what to do, her phone rang— Alphys was calling her.

"H-hey! I know this looks bad, but… d-don't worry! I installed a bomb-defusing program on your phone! You sh-should be able to find it where y-you found that jetpack app! When you're close to a bomb… use the 'defuse' option! G-got it!?"

"Yeah."

"N-now, go get 'em!"

With that, Alphys hung up.

* * *

Quickly, Frisk located the bomb-defusing program on her phone. With it, she set off to defuse the bombs.

The dog slept on the floor nearby, blissfully unaware that its tail was on fire. The child pressed the defuse option, extinguishing the flame.

Right afterwards, her phone rang.

"Great job!" Alphys exclaimed, being thrilled by this as well. "You, uh, defused the dog! Keep heading around the room! Try going down there!"

Frisk wasn't really sure what "down there" meant, so instead she headed straight for the next bomb that she could see to her right: the work of fiction, guarded by a set of orange and blue lasers.

She ran right through an orange laser, and paused right as a blue laser approached her. Once the blue laser no longer touched her, she headed right through another orange laser and towards the bomb.

Quickly, to her relief, the book was defused.

Next up— after avoiding the lasers again, of course— she headed towards a conveyer belt nearby, where a binder containing a stack of papers hovered. As she passed by, she managed to defuse it.

Something flew past her face. Frisk noticed that it was the glass of water— which by now, was already too far to defuse. She set it aside, having more pressing matters to deal with.

Seeing the present sitting on its own platform, she hopped onto a steam vent and was shot over a gap to reach it. Like the rest before it, it was defused successfully.

The child utilized another steam vent to reach the next bomb: the basketball, which was bouncing around erratically. She spent a second or two chasing it around before she was able to defuse it.

Immediately afterwards, her phone rang, with Alphys on the other end.

"Great job! Now, head for the center! I'm using, uh, EM fields to trap the glass of water there!"

Frisk looked over to see that the glass of water was being held still, although it was violently shaking.

When she drew close, she activated the bomb defusal program one more time. The glass of water ceased to flash.

With the end of that, Frisk let out one final huff and fell down to her knees.

That was exhausting.

Mettaton descended into the area.

"WELL DONE, DARLING!" he congratulated. "YOU'VE DEACTIVATED ALL OF THE BOMBS!"

The robot held up a finger. "IF YOU DIDN'T DEACTIVATE THEM, THE BIG BOMB WOULD HAVE EXPLODED IN TWO MINUTES."

"NOW IT WON'T EXPLODE IN TWO MINUTES! INSTEAD, IT'LL EXPLODE _IN TWO SECONDS!"_

Menacingly, he gestured to the air.

"GOODBYE, DARLING!" Mettaton let out a loud, maniacal laugh, ascending into the air.

Frisk tensed up with dread. Her gaze was affixed on the bomb, as she waited for it to explode.

 _One second._

 _Two seconds._

 _…_

 _…Three seconds?_

"AH," Mettaton began to comment, hovering back down. "IT SEEMS THE BOMB ISN'T GOING OFF,"

The noise of a ringtone came from Mettaton. Using the capabilities of his robotic body, he took the phone call.

"That's b-because!" came Alphys's voice. "While you were monologuing… I…! I f… fix… Um… I ch-change… no, I… um…"

"OH NO," Mettaton bluntly stated. "YOU DEACTIVATED THE BOMB WITH YOUR HACKING SKILLS."

"Yeah! That's what I did!"

"CURSES!" Mettaton shouted. "IT SEEMS I'VE BEEN FOILED AGAIN!"

He shook a fist in the air. "CURSE YOU, HUMAN! CURSE YOU, DR. ALPHYS, FOR HELPING SO MUCH!

"BUT I DON'T CURSE MY EIGHT WONDERFUL VIEWERS FOR TUNING IN!" the robot added, swerving off to the side. "UNTIL NEXT TIME, DARLING!"

With a wave of goodbye, he rocketed away.

Soon after Mettaton was out of sight, her phone rang. It took her longer than usual to react to it.

"W-wow…" Alphys began, clearly relieved. "W-we really showed him, huh?"

"Mm hmm."

Alphys was silent for a moment, before continuing.

"H-hey, I know I was kind of weird at first…" she said, with a tinge of embarrassment. "But… I really think I'm getting more… uh, more… m-more confident about guiding you! S-so don't worry about that b-big d-dumb robot… I-I'll protect you from him!"

Her voice grew a little softer. "A-and if it really c-came down to it, we could just t-turn… um, nevermind."

"Anyways, the elevator to the next floor is j-just a little farther," Alphys continued. "This time, however—"

"Alphys?" Frisk interrupted.

"What is it?"

"My head hurts… and I'm not feeling so well."

"W-well, that's not good…" Alphys muttered, a little alarmed. "Oh, I know… d-do you want to drop by the lab?"

The child mumbled a response."Then I'd have to walk all the way back."

"You can use the elevators! My lab's right by the L1 elevator, so you can get there pretty quickly. C-convenient, right?"

"Yeah. I'll think I'll drop by, then."

"Great! S-see ya there!"

With that, Alphys hung up.

Summoning her strength, Frisk managed to rise from her seat on the floor, doing her best to ignore her splitting headache. She wearily looked around and found a path that led away from the room.

As she took it, it led her to another view of the Core: still dark and ominous as last time.

Her phone rang.

"Hey, so I noticed something…" Alphys began.

"Yeah?"

"The entire time, y-you've been kind of quiet…"

Frisk didn't think that she was being particularly quiet… probably because she never spoke much in the first place.

"Are you w-worried about meeting Asgore…?" Alphys asked.

Although the headache made it a little hard to concentrate, Frisk began to consider it. Asgore was supposed to be a nice person, from what she had heard, but… she couldn't help but be a little afraid of him. After all, he did have six human souls already, so what would stop him from collecting one more?

"I guess."

Alphys went silent for a moment. Frisk continued to walk on, staring out at the Core in the distance.

"W-well, don't worry, okay?" Alphys eventually spoke up. "Th-the king is a really nice guy… I'm sure you can talk to him, and… w-with your human soul, you can pass through the barrier!"

That was what Undyne said. Frisk hoped that both she and Alphys were right: all it would take to pass by him would be to talk it out.

"S-so no worrying, okay? J-just forget about it and smile."

Frisk nodded, although her head felt heavy. "Alright."

"The elevator's just a little farther! You're almost there!"

"Thanks, Alphys."

"Y-you're welcome!"

With that, Alphys hung up.

Despite the ache in her joints and the pain in her head, Frisk treaded onwards, fueled by her determination.

* * *

Once reaching the elevator, she got it open and entered. This time, four lights were glowing: L1, R1, R2, and L3. As instructed, the child pressed the button marked L1, and took a seat on the floor.

As before, the elevator made her nauseous: more than she already was, that is. She didn't care about— her headache was a more pressing issue. It felt like someone was driving a jackhammer through her head. Of course, if someone actually did that, she would be dead in a matter of seconds, so at least there was something to be thankful about.

Once the exit of the elevator opened again, Frisk headed out and located Alphy's lab off in the distance. It was fairly hard to miss: it was a large white building, after all.

By this time, every step felt like a struggle. It was hard, finding the energy to move underneath the searing heat of Hotland's arid atmosphere. Still, she headed for her destination, continuing to place one foot ahead of the other.

When she managed to draw close to the lab, the door automatically opened for her— not as jarring as last time, but still surprised her a little. Unlike last time, the lab inside was brightly illuminated, and someone was standing at the doorway.

"H-hi, Frisk!" Alphys greeted, moving to the side as the child stepped through the doorway. "A-are you still not feeling very well?"

"Not really…" Frisk croaked. If anything, it had gotten a little worse, although the air-conditioning had been refreshing.

The child began to stumble a little, prompting Alphys to help lower her to the floor.

"T-tell me what's wrong."

The child began to mumble. "I'm tired… my head hurts… I'm all queasy—"

"I see… another case of heat exhaustion…" Alphys noted, cutting her off. "I-it's happens a lot in Hotland, actually. H-here, I know exactly what to do!"

As Alphys walked off, Frisk sat against the wall, her temperature beginning at last to decline.

She was going to be okay.

* * *

A little known fact about Sans and Papyrus's house was that there was a cleverly hidden door behind it. One would expect it to be another entrance to the house… but there was only one exit inside, meaning that it couldn't possibly be the case.

Unlocking the door, Sans slipped inside for the first time in a while, shutting the door behind him.

The room it led to had quite an interesting trait: it was completely unaffected by any changes in the timeline. The reason was simple: because it was not really a part of it. It was part of another… but that place was long gone. This piece was the only part of it that could be recovered.

Because of this, Sans made it a habit to leave things in here, in order to keep a record of sorts. As a result, he was not sure where everything in the room's drawers had come from. But that was to be expected of him.

He opened up the drawers and scanned their contents briefly: there wasn't anything new, at first glance. This had been the case for the last… how long had it been? A few months? A year? Longer? He had forgotten.

He reached into one of the drawers and pulled out an album. Most of the pictures were of him, along with other people that he had met in the past. He found a sense of solace within the sight of them.

As he flipped farther into the album, his expression began to change. He began to see pictures that he didn't recognize. Something had changed at last.

Sans opened to the last page of the album and made his way backwards, finding the last photograph within the album. Taking it from its spot, he held it up to the light, getting a closer look.

Standing right in the center of the photo was a rather familiar child. She had brown shoulder-length hair, and while her outfit had changed, Sans still recognized the shoes. Standing by her side was himself, Papyrus, Alphys, Undyne, Asgore… and someone that the skeleton didn't recognize, although there was a striking resemblance to Asgore.

Everyone seemed to be happy. Papyrus, Undyne, and the child wore huge grins on their faces, like there weren't any troubles to bother them anymore. Alphys was a little more reserved, but clearly, she was content. Asgore and the newcomer… a little harder to say, but mostly they just seemed to be relieved… a little surprised, too.

Even though Sans was always smiling, completely independent of how he actually felt, he was able to recognize the other subtle in the photograph: his pupils were shining brighter than usual, and he was beaming— grin extending from one side of his face to the other.

The most surprising part of the photograph, however, was not in the people that it contained. Everyone stood around a path through a field of vibrant, green grass. Behind them lay a bright blue sky, with clouds floating lazily among it.

It was such a cheery, uplifting image… and yet, it felt completely, utterly wrong.

Someone… or maybe something… had dragged everyone back down into the underground again, not leaving a single memory to bring with them.

He placed the photo in his pocket. He checked the drawers within the room again, for good measure, but he couldn't find anything else that had changed. He wasn't really sure what it all meant.

Earlier, he had formed a theory… but before now, there wasn't real evidence to back it up. Now, Sans firmly believed it… the anomaly was definitely out there.

And he knew who to ask first.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Not much to say here.**

 **Well, there is a fun fact. This is actually the first time Undyne hasn't appeared in a chapter from when she first appeared. That's a streak of eight chapters, for those keeping count. Amusing, isn't it?**

 **Next time:we get through the next leg of Hotland. The next eight of them, in fact.**


	19. datudou's going on another hiatus, oh no

Howdy!

Here's a quick status update for you wonderful people. There's no new chapter, sorry about that!

First of all, some bad news. Starting tomorrow, I will be travelling for two and a half weeks, and while I might technically be able to update… don't count on it. Don't expect anything new for a while.

Because I feel bad about that, I decided to finish and upload my Bonetrousle rewrite. It's drastically different from the original, to the point where entirely new scenes have been written to replace the old ones. Some of you might like the old one better, but… well, I really like the new one. I'd suggest that you check it out, and maybe the Heartache rewrite from earlier as well, if you missed out on that. I like these two chapters.

By the way, Dating Start is next on my list of rewrites, although I don't know when that will happen. Because I really like rewriting my stuff.

As before, don't leave a review on this chapter, since this will get deleted and be replaced with the new chapter at a later point. PM me any thoughts, concerns, etc.

Thanks for your patience.


	20. so, uh

After downing a few cupfuls of water, Frisk took a nap on the floor, sitting up against the wall. It wasn't very comfortable, but she found a way.

She rested for a few hours or so…

* * *

"Hey! Hey, Frisk! Get up!"

Frisk bolted up to her feet.

"Flowey!?" Frisk exclaimed. "What are you doing here!? You're not supposed to make an appearance for like, seven chapters or something!"

"It doesn't matter anymore!" the flower panickedly shouted. "I'm here to tell you the news!"

"What is it!?"

"The author's not going to be writing 'A Child Gets Stuck in a Cave' anymore!"

" _WHAT!?"_

Using a vine, Flowey tossed Frisk a folded piece of paper. "Here, read this. It's the details."

The child hurriedly opened it and scanned its contents.

"'I have finally run out of determination to write more chapters,'" Frisk repeated. "'I have become unhappy with the state of this story in general, and have completely lost interest in writing it.'"

"Hey, why are you reading this out loud?"

"I don't know!? Anyways, 'However, I do not regret the time that I spent working on this. This has been an incredible experience, and I got to meet some nice people in the process! Most of all… it's been a lot of fun, and I really hope that people had fun while reading this! Thank you for sticking around with me!'"

Frisk put down the piece of paper.

"That's all he wrote," she said, dejectedly.

Flowey grumbled. "Well, looks like we'll have to break the news to the readers. Otherwise they're going to think the author died on vacation or something."

Frisk suddenly became aware of something. "Um… I think they're already listening."

The two of them turned to a wall. A wall short of a fifth wall, to be more precise.

"Oh, shoot. Well, that takes care of that."

* * *

Flowey stared at the ground. "So… what do we do now, now that the author's essentially abandoned us?"

"I don't know," Frisk lamented. "Maybe I should focus on getting out of the underground or something."

"Maybe… but there's no one to write about it. What's the point?"

"…True."

A vine sprouted from the ground. It reached over to the refrigerator in Alphys's lab and opened the door, yanking out a soda.

"Want one?" Flowey offered.

"No thanks. I hate soda."

"Suit yourself."

The vine, wrapped around the soda at its end, went over to Flowey and poured a mouthful of soda into his mouth. Flowey swallowed it like terrible-tasting medicine.

"Just remembered how much I hate this stuff too," he grumbled. "Okay, how are we going to end this thing?"

"To be honest? I have no idea. I always thought that we were going to end on some thoughtful epilogue or something… if he ever finished, that is."

"Well, technically… this entire chapter is non-canon. Anything can happen. Sans could appear out of nowhere and inexplicably give us a bad time. Or maybe we'll fall asleep and wake up some in stupid AU. Or—"

"Oh, screw it," Frisk interrupted. "I'm going to try to end this chapter on a semi-positive note."

She rose her voice. "Hey! To whoever's reading this— if you're writing something, don't give up! If you do, you'll send your characters into some weird limbo!"

"Yeah, uh, stay determined or something!" Flowey added. "Don't be like that author douche!"

They were silent for a moment afterwards.

"Yeah, so, uh, are we done now?" Frisk asked.

"I think so—"

Suddenly, with a loud crash, a wall broke open, creating a giant hole.

"Wait, the author's not writing this piece of garbage anymore!?" Undyne shouted, leaping through the hole in the wall. " _HECK YEAH!"_

Napstablook floated in behind her. "oh… that's great, i guess…"

The bathroom door opened. Alphys stepped out, wearing a confused expression on her face. "S-so… uh… what happens now?"

"WHY, IT'S OBVIOUS!" Papyrus shouted, who happened to be joined by his brother. "WE DON'T HAVE TO LIVE BY RULES ANYMORE! I HAVE SO MANY PUNS THAT I WANT TO TELL!"

"yeah, i could inexplicably give people bad times and nobody would care that it would be out of character," Sans added, summoning a gaster blaster from mid-air. "NOW COME ON! WHO WANTS TO GO FIRST!?"

"Seriously?" Flowey groaned. " _This_ is the note we're ending on?"

* * *

 **The ending was slapped together very quickly.** **Seriously, don't abandon your fics like I do. Otherwise, this happens.**

 **But seriously, thanks for sticking around. I really wouldn't have gotten this far without you guys.**

 **Will I be writing something else? Maybe. I need a good idea first, some time to waste, and then some motivation to go through with it.**

 **We'll see, we'll see.**


End file.
